Donald Trump and Alina Habba's Legal Move 'Entirely Pointless'—Judge Says

The judge in the Donald Trump defamation case in New York has explained why he shot down his attorney's mistrial request during the trial, calling it "pointless."

Judge Lewis Kaplan responded to a letter filed by Alina Habba on January 23 in which she requested a mistrial. Kaplan wrote that the motion was denied as it was "lacking any merit." He also said, "granting a mistrial would be entirely pointless."

In January, Trump was ordered to pay former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for statements made in 2019. A jury ruled last year that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll—the most recent trial was to determine the total in damages.

Newsweek has approached Habba for comment via email out of hours.

Habba first requested a mistrial in the presence of the jury during a cross-examination of Carroll, who had testified she deleted death threats she received in emails after the public heard about her rape claims against Trump.

Habba's argument was that these emails should have been preserved so they could be discussed at trial.

This was immediately denied by the court. It was this oral motion that Kaplan called "untimely," "entirely pointless" and that it "made no sense" because it did not acknowledge that Carroll had already said she had deleted emails.

Habba then requested a mistrial in a letter to the judge on January 23 on the grounds that Carroll said she had a tendency to delete threatening emails made towards her.

Habba said Carroll "actively deleted evidence which she now attempts to rely on in establishing her damages claim."

This was essentially a "reconsideration" of Habba's motion in court, Kaplan wrote, calling it "doubly frivolous."

Kaplan also said both Habba and counsel for Carroll had not managed to fully establish which material had been deleted and when.

The judge then wrote that Habba's motion was "without merit" because "Trump did not suggest he had sought to recover the deleted material by discovery."

As a result, the same problems would have occurred in a new trial following the declaration of a mistrial and would only have caused the jury to be dismissed and reselected, Kaplan said.

Trump was forced to pay $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million for reputational repair, and $65 million in punitive damages to Carroll.

The former president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has said he would appeal the latest verdict.

Since the trial ended, Habba has slammed Kaplan and explained on the network Newsmax why she felt hard done by when she disputed a ruling.

"We have a judge that is trying to throw a civil attorney, threatening me that he's going to put me in the 'clink,' I believe was what he said[...]because I objected to his ruling on an evidentiary issue," said Habba on Monday.

"It was a PowerPoint slide that helped prove our case and he said, 'No, you're not allowed to bring it in, I'm sorry.'

"I said, 'Your honor, I have to put something on the record, I completely disagree with you, the evidence rules don't say it,' and his response was, 'Sit down, Ms. Habba, or I am going to put you in jail.'"

Habba contested not being able to use a particular slide in her closing argument.

During this exchange, Kaplan told Habba on January 26 she was on the "verge of spending some time in the lockup."

Kaplan had ordered that Trump could not discuss several topics in the courtroom, including Carroll's previous romantic relationships and sexual experiences and "suggesting or implying" that Trump did not sexually abuse her.