No wonder Alina Habba flopped so badly

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Donald Trump never would have won his second E. Jean Carroll trial even with strong legal representation, but Trump’s attorney Alina Habba was the opposite of that. The trial wasn’t televised, but by all accounts, she stunk up the joint. She seemed to be making the wrong moves at the wrong time during the trial, in a way that gave the impression she had no idea how a trial even worked. Which was weird because she did go to law school, after all.

But now we’re getting some context into Habba’s inept lawyering from, of all places, E. Jean Carroll’s legal team. Carroll appeared on the Rachel Maddow show with her attorneys on Monday evening, and one of them explained that Habba’s behavior during the trial was entirely different depending upon whether Trump was in attendance at the time or not. Trump would often prod Habba to object, or to say and do certain things, and Habba would do them, even if they were dumb moves that were only going to make things worse.

In other words, Donald Trump wasn’t really represented in this trial by Alina Habba. She was mostly just a cutout. When Trump was in the courtroom, he was essentially representing himself. That brings to mind the old adage about anyone who represents themself has a fool for a client.