Alina Habba Photo Sparks Pandemonium Within Republican Party

A photo of Alina Habba at a New Hampshire victory party has sparked chaos after the former president's defamation trial was postponed because of concerns about COVID.

Habba, who previously worked in real estate law before becoming part of Trump's legal team, is representing the Republican in the second defamation trial brought against him by the writer and journalist E. Jean Carroll.

In May 2023, Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages after a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the one-time Elle columnist. The former president has repeatedly denied sexually assaulting Carroll at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York in the 1990s.

Carroll's lawyers are seeking another $10 million in compensatory damages and substantially more after the former president continued to deny the accusations that he assaulted her; he said he had no idea who Carroll is and that she was not his type. In May, Trump called Carroll's account fake and labeled her a "whack job" during a CNN town hall broadcast. In early September, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Trump's comments against Carroll were defamatory.

Before proceedings began on Monday, Habba asked Kaplan for a one-day adjournment when she said she wasn't feeling well after one or both of her parents were exposed to COVID-19. The attorney tested negative for the virus on Monday morning, as did her co-counsel in the case, Michael Madaio, but Habba said that her babysitter also has symptoms.

In addition to Habba, one juror has been feeling sick and is being tested for COVID-19, according to NBC News.

The trial is not scheduled to resume until Thursday but on Wednesday, Habba was spotted at Trump's campaign event in New Hampshire.

Trump won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary on January 23 with over 50 percent of the vote.

Former Trump staffer Dylan Quattrucci, who was the Republican's deputy state director in New Hampshire during his 2020 campaign, posted a photo of himself with Habba on X, formerly Twitter.

"Just arrived at President Trump's NH primary victory party and ran into the wonderful Alina Habba," he said.

"Alina is President Trump's rockstar attorney & a huge inspiration of mine!"

Later, he posted on X again, this time saying he had been kicked out of the event.

He said: "I was just kicked out of the Trump victory party for absolutely no reason.

"I was standing there speaking with other Trump supporters when I was asked to leave and pushed out of the venue.

"This is how they treat loyalty.

"If only President Trump knew how his most loyal and dedicated supporters were treated by his staff..."

Newsweek contacted representatives for Habba and Trump by email, and Quattrucci by social media.

In response, the image circulated on social media. The account Republicans against Trump shared the footage on X and speculated that Quattrucci was removed because he had taken an image of Habba.

Ron Filipkowski added: "Poor guy gets kicked out of the Trump rally in NH after busting Alina Habba who is supposed to be missing court because she's sick."