Alina Habba just stepped in it

| 9:15 pm EDT March 23, 2024
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Where is Donald Trump going to get the approximately half a billion dollars by Monday to cover his appellate bond for his New York fraud case? I’m glad I asked me that. I’m even gladder that Martha MacCallum, on her Fox News show “The Story,” asked that question of Trump lawyer Alina Habba.

Specifically, MacCallum asked Habba: “Is there any effort on the part of your team to secure this [appellate] money through another country, Saudi Arabia or Russia, as Joy Behar seems to think?” One embarrassed, half beat later, Habba replied, “Well, there’s rules and regulations that are public, I can’t speak about strategy that requires certain things and we have to follow those rules.” Um, huh? I think I’ll take that as a “Yes.”

In a way it’s a moot point. Letitia James, on behalf of the good people of the great state of New York, is going to get that money anyway. Even if she has to sell off every last thing Donald Trump owns. That much is certain.

But the interview helps to underscore just how completely stupid and incompetent Habba is. She has been a positive disaster for Donald Trump. That’s a good thing, of course. We want Trump to have stupid and incompetent representation, and he has gone to Herculean lengths to oblige us. Trump has an uncanny nose for bottom feeders.

So Habba tacitly admitted to Martha MacCallum that Trump might be looking to governments hostile to the United States for funds. There isn’t any doubt that Trump would sell his wife and children to get out of the mess he’s in. So Trump selling secrets that are vital to American security interests for cash to unfriendly governments is easy to imagine. Habba knew it was true, knew it was wrong and clumsily changed the subject. If it can be proved that she is helping Trump shop enemy governments for funds in exchange for secrets, Habba could be disbarred and even imprisoned.

I am not alone in the opinion that Habba is vile, scheming and stupid. Some of Trump’s other lawyers also think she’s vile, scheming and stupid. In fact, they think Habba’s disastrous contributions to Trump’s legal team will just about guarantee that Trump faces the worst possible ruin in his losing battle to stay financially intact. This reporting comes from no less than seven sources familiar with the situation at the Trump Organization.

An ad hoc chat room consisting of Trump lawyers’ texts and emails has grown up around Habba’s incompetence, histrionics and hijinx, devoted exclusively to complaining about and mocking her. The Trump organisation officially denies this, stating, “Alina Habba is not only an incredibly competent attorney, she has our utmost trust and confidence and has the fortitude to take on some of the most politically corrupt and unethical institutions in this country.” Seven anonymous sources pointedly say otherwise. So does just about every legal pundit in the nation. Habba is an unqualified disaster for Trump.

Habba is also at risk of being disbarred as the direct result of a Machiavellian scheme she devised to attract Donald Trump’s favourable opinion in the first place. Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, recently paid $82,500 to settle a lawsuit brought by a former waitress, Alice Bianco, who says she was tricked into signing an unlawful non-disclosure agreement in 2021 after being sexually harassed by a supervisor. The patently illegal NDA was devised by Habba, who cynically cosied up to and sweet-talked Bianco with an eye to tricking her into the settlement and thereby impressing Trump.

However badly this imbroglio may turn out for Habba, it had the desired effect on Trump, and convinced him to make Habba his front man. Trump frequently comments on how much Habba “loves Trump,” the ultimate third person Trump accolade. Donald Trump often gushes to associates about Habba’s supposed physical beauty and how it works to his advantage on TV.

Like so many Trump lawyers cum fixers before her — Michael Cohen, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Paul Manafort, and so on — Habba will probably pay a steep price for her fidelity to her toxic hero. Very few people associated with Trump ultimately escape unscathed. Many get sentenced to prison. Just ask Allen Weisselberg, Peter Navarro, George Papadopoulos, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Steve Bannon, to name a few. Will the obnoxious idiot Alina Habba ultimately join that list? One can only hope. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.