Alina Habba Botches Attempt to Kill Evidence Against Trump

Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba botched an attempt to kill evidence that a jury may find important in the second E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit and potential future trials.

This current civil trial in New York follows the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit that Carroll previously won against Trump in May 2023, when a different jury ruled Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll at a department store and then defaming her character while denying the assault took place. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.

Carroll is now seeking over $10 million in damages based on statements Trump made in 2019 in which he denied the assault, including one in which he suggested Carroll made up the attack to sell copies of her book. Trump, who may testify Thursday, has argued that the remarks he made while president denying the assault took place are protected under absolute immunity since they fell under the scope of his official duties.

The exchange between Habba and U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday occurred after Roberta Kaplan, attorney for the former Elle columnist, submitted into evidence a video of the former president that was borrowed from a January 17 Newsmax clip.

Trump said in the video: "I have no idea who [Carroll] was and nor could I care less. It's a rigged deal. It's a made-up, fabricated story."

Before the playing of the video, Habba said she had no objection, according to Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee, who was in the courtroom.

The exchange played out as follows:

Judge Kaplan: "When was that?"

Habba: "We met and conferred and objected."

Judge Kaplan: "This just came in without objection."

Habba then replied, "Yes, but..." and Kaplan told her to "have a seat."

The Newsmax clip of Trump's comments during a campaign rally, and the transcript associated with it, was obtained by Kaplan and filed with the court on Saturday. After those public statements, Trump still discussed Carroll and the defamation case in a series of 30 posts on his social media site, Truth Social, in which he continued to defend himself.

This could be a key piece of evidence that could lead to a third defamation trial.

Bryan Sullivan, Hunter Biden's attorney and a founding partner at Los Angeles-based Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae, previously told Newsweek that a third such case would likely be even more costly for Trump than the previous two.

"She can sue him a third time, and precedence has been established from the first two cases. The damages would likely be increased the third time," he said.

Update 1/25/24, 1:36 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional background and information.