Alina Habba 'Looking Forward' to Donald Trump Appeal

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Donald Trump, has said she is "looking forward" to appealing the Republican's civil fraud judgement.

Earlier this month, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump will have to pay roughly $355 million in penalties for fraud, holding that the former president and top executives at The Trump Organization committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. When the judgement was officially entered on Tuesday, pre-judgement interest was included, meaning the full amount the Republican will have to pay is $464,576,230.62

Fellow Trump lawyer Christopher Kise previously said that the former president will appeal the judge's ruling, and told Newsweek Trump "remains confident the Appellate Division will ultimately correct the innumerable and catastrophic errors made by a trial court untethered to the law or to reality."

"Given the grave stakes, we trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious verdict and end this relentless persecution against my clients," Habba said in a statement.

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear: this is not just about Donald Trump—if this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business," she added.

Speaking to Newsmax on Sunday, Habba provided an update on where the appeal stands, saying: "I'm very confident on our appeal, I have no concerns there, the record was so biased, the decisions were so void of law and order and fact that we are not concerned on the higher level courts. I'm actually looking forward to getting a fair shake you know we always knew Lydia this was going to be a long run on all these cases."

Newsweek contacted representatives for Habba to comment on this story.

If Trump loses the appeal, and pays the full amount, he may be helped by a GoFundMe that was set up to assist with the payment. It has received over $1 million in donations so far.

Besides the fraud ruling, Trump is also wrangling with a January obligation to pay the journalist E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for statements deemed defamatory that he made in 2019.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the lawsuit, rejected the former president's bid to delay paying damages, writing in a court filing dated February 24: "The Court declines to grant any stay, much less an unsecured stay, without first having afforded plaintiff a meaningful opportunity to be heard."