Trump Lawyer Objecting to Her Own Document Draws Mockery: 'Incompetent'

Donald Trump's lawyer was mocked on social media after objecting to her own legal document being used in court.

Alina Habba, Trump's lead defense attorney, took issue with a document her own team entered when Ivanka Trump testified as a witness in her father's civil fraud trial on Wednesday.

Habba is representing the former president in a lawsuit New York Attorney General Letitia James filed in 2022, alleging that Trump and top executives at The Trump Organization conspired to increase his net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure loans.

In September, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a partial summary stating that the defendants committed fraud. He ruled that Trump grossly inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. The court will now decide on six other accusations, including falsifying business records, insurance fraud, and conspiracy claims.

During her testimony, prosecutors asked Ivanka Trump, who left The Trump Organization in 2017 to join her father's White House administration and was initially named as a co-defendant in the trial, about emails she exchanged with Trump Organization executives.

She said she couldn't remember them, so the Attorney General's office entered documents into evidence to remind her, including an email she sent to Allen Weisselberg and other Trump Organization executives dated December 15, 2011.

"It doesn't get better than this. lets (sic) discuss asap (sic)," Ivanka wrote in the email.

At this point, Habba objected to the email being entered as evidence, claiming that it was never sent, The Messenger's Adam Klasfeld reported. Prosecutor Kevin Wallace told Habba that the document she objected to was one of her team's own documents.

Engoron said that he would allow the questioning about the email to continue.

Newsweek reached out to a representative for Habba via email for comment on Thursday.

Habba was swiftly mocked online following the incident.

One person who identified themselves as a lawyer in their bio on X, formerly Twitter, wrote: "An attorney fresh out of passing the bar could do better."

Another X user named Susan Denson said: "Boy, I bet all the big law firms are tripping over themselves just to hire such a brilliant lawyer!"

"So Alina Habba as lawyer for the defence, objected to her own document being entered into evidence? This trial is the gift that keep giving," a third X user posted.

"Donni Dollhands' attorney, Alina Habba, objected to the Prosecution entering an exhibit from the Trump Organization that Alina Habba handed over to the Prosecution during the Discovery Phase," X user Sgt Joker said. "Classic incompetent [clown emoji]. Only the best people...yada, yada..."

Ivanka Trump was the last witness to testify in the trial. She was also questioned on her job as executive vice president for development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization and her role in negotiating the Trump Organization's loan from Deutsche Bank to purchase the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, Florida, in 2011.

The conditions of the loan required that her father's net worth be at least $3 billion; James claims that the $4.2 billion declared by Donald Trump in his 2011 financial statement was far higher than the actual amount.

Meanwhile, Habba has been pushing for a mistrial, arguing that Engoron did not give Trump enough time to speak when he testified on Monday.

Speaking outside the New York courtroom, she accused Engoron of being "unhinged" after he clashed with the former president and his lawyers several times during Trump's testimony.