Alina Habba's Court Remarks Could Cost Donald Trump Dearly

Remarks made by one of Donald Trump's lawyers in his E. Jean Carroll case could negatively impact the former President, an ex-attorney has said.

It is the second day of Trump's second defamation trial, brought against him by Carroll, a journalist. In May 2023, Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages in May following a jury finding the former president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the former Elle columnist. Trump has denied sexually assaulting Carroll at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s in New York.

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 in a New York City department store changing room in the mid-1990s, claiming he has no idea who she is and that Carroll 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.

Writing in her Substack newsletter January 17, Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama, said Alina Habba, one of the lawyers representing Trump, had suggested Trump was the real victim in the trial.

She said Habba argued that Carroll got attention and fame from the case and that tweets Trump wrote about her were a small price to pay. In doing so, Habba opened him up to "heavy damages," Vance argued.

"A more skillful lawyer than Alina Habba might have avoided reminding the jury any more than absolutely necessary that her client sexually assaulted the plaintiff," she wrote.

"But by putting Carroll on trial and suggesting she is the one at fault here—money hungry, attention hungry—she's given this jury a path forward to impose heavy damages on her client. How much is enough to keep Trump from doing it again? Five million dollars wasn't enough to keep him from defaming Carroll immediately after the first judgment. The prospect of this trial only emboldened him. This jury will be charged with protecting Carroll, and with both Trump and his lawyer unrepentant, that could turn out to be a very high number."

Newsweek contacted representatives for Habba by email to comment on this story.

Meanwhile, Judge Kaplan said Trump will face an anonymous nine-person jury, with the names, addresses and places of employment of prospective jurors kept secret, saying he found "strong reason" to provide special protections for jurors at the civil trial.

If juror identities were disclosed, "there would be a strong likelihood of unwanted media attention to the jurors, influence attempts, and/or harassment or worse by supporters of Mr. Trump [and/or by Mr. Trump himself]," Kaplan wrote.

Three of the Republican's other lawyers have meanwhile withdrawn from the case, but have not provided a reason as to why.

The case resumes on Wednesday and Carroll is expected to testify.