Alina Habba Makes Jibe at Letitia James in Furious Speech

Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba has lashed out against Attorney General Letitia James, saying the value of the former president's properties wouldn't be worth much if the New York chief lawyer had her name on them.

James brought forward a $250 million civil lawsuit against Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jr., and some Trump Organization executives, accusing them of purposefully inflating the value of the former president's properties and assets by as much as $2.2 billion. The trial is currently ongoing in New York.

On September 26, Judge Arthur F. Engoron—who's overseeing Trump's civil fraud trial—ruled in favor of James, saying that there was "conclusive evidence" that Trump, the Trump Organization, and the former president's two adult sons had committed fraud by misrepresenting his wealth and inflating the value of his assets.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing, calling Engoron a "highly partisan Democrat 'Judge'" in a post on his social media platform Truth Social and claiming James's lawsuit is politically motivated. His lawyers said that Trump's alleged inflated valuations were a result of his business skills.

On Tuesday, Trump returned to the defense counsel's table at the Manhattan lower courthouse as the trial focused on the valuation of his 40 Wall Street property.

Talking to reporters outside the courtroom, Habba took a jibe at James while defending Trump against accusations of fraud.

"I think you guys need to understand something: banks hire appraisers, everybody here knows it, everybody here who has purchased a home or purchased anything in real estate understands this very basic thing."

She added: "Let me put this whole case in plain English for you, OK? You are an individual, you go to get something appraised. You say my house is worth this. Your bank doesn't take your word for it."

She continued: "They hire people like that gentleman to go do their own values. Now, those values are going to be lower than the ones that the homeowner or the commercial real estate owner would use. It's very basic."

Habba added that the case against Trump "has nothing to do with this." She said: "The statement of financial conditions didn't include President Trump's brand. The statement of financial conditions does not include the big picture."

"If you take Trump Tower and you take the Trump name off of that building and you put Letitia James' name on that building, it would not be worth what it's worth when Donald Trump owns it," she concluded.

But James, who's also been the target of many of Trump's comments during courtroom breaks, has appeared to stand above them so far.

At the end of the day on Tuesday, when the court adjourned, James expressed optimism that she'll win the case. "He can call me names, he can engage in distractions, but at the end of the day... his entire empire was built on nothing but lies and on sinking sand," James told reporters.