Donald Trump's Lawyer Insists They Had a 'Strong Week'

Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba believes the former president's legal team had a good first week at his New York fraud trial, despite frequent clashes with the judge and losing a key part of the case before the trial began.

Habba told Newsmax that she was feeling "very good."

"We had a strong day 4, we had a strong week, despite the situation we have been put in in this court, which we strongly believe we shouldn't have been in. We have been fighting hard," she said.

Habba is one of Trump's closest confidants.

She said that a key witness had helped Trump's case. She didn't name the key witness, but she was likely referring to Trump's former friend and longtime accountant Donald Bender. The former president complained in court about not being able to hear Bender, spreading his arms out and pointing to his ear as Bender spoke.

"Their key witness came up and he said, frankly, everything I wanted him to say," Habba said, adding that she had no problem hearing the testimony. " I heard it perfectly and I looked over. I think that we're doing very well."

She reiterated Trump's line that New York Attorney General Letitia James was politically motivated in taking a civil fraud case against the former president.

"It's not going to go very well for Letitia James because at the end of the day, the Trump Organization did nothing wrong," Habba said.

"They are using a consumer fraud statute inappropriately against a private business. It's not supposed to happen and it's a scary precedent for New Yorkers."

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled on September 26 that Trump had committed fraud, inflating the value of several of his properties and assets for years while filing financial statements.

The ruling means that the civil trial will now look at other allegations from James' lawsuit related to the falsification of business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud and conspiracy, as well as the size of any penalty, which will be decided by Engoron.

Trump could face a fine totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as a ban from doing business in New York, and some of his properties could be removed from his control or dissolved.

Habba and the rest of the Trump team had frequent clashes with the judge and opposing lawyers this week. At one point, Judge Engoron asked the lawyer speaking after Habba to lower the volume because she had been so loud.

On Monday, Judge Engoron clashed with Habba after she criticized the court for not holding a jury trial.

He responded that "nobody asked for" a jury trial. Multiple lawyers who are not involved in the case have argued that Trump's team only needed to check a box on a court filing to request a jury trial prior to the start of the hearing—something his team has repeatedly denied.

"It's incredibly easy to ask for a jury trial," former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman posted on X, formerly Twitter. "You just check a box on a form."

Habba denied this was the case to multiple outlets, telling Fox News earlier on Tuesday: "There is no option to check a box."

The absence of a jury at the trial has been a source of anger for Trump supporters, while the former president and his team have portrayed the case—like the other legal challenges against him—as politically motivated.

Some Democrats have suggested that the supposed clerical error was a ploy to continue claiming the judge was solely responsible for the negative impacts on Trump's business empire. After Judge Engoron ruled last week that Trump and his named associates had overvalued several of the former president's properties for financial gain, Trump called him "highly politicized."

In his summary judgment, Judge Engoron ordered that some of Trump's business licenses in New York be rescinded over the years-long fraud and that the companies that own his properties should be handed over to independent receivers. His lawyers are currently appealing the decision.

On Monday, Trump lawyer Christopher Kise got into a heated exchange with Judge Engoron after the judge asked another attorney at what point something is "material."

"You owe it to the defendants to listen to this evidence," Kise told Judge Engoron. "I don't think you are an expert on accounting standards...we have experts you haven't heard from.

"I would caution you to listen, there is a lot more to this story, there are layers to this and we need to give witnesses an opportunity to take the stand and learn what this case is about," the lawyer told the judge.

Trump himself took direct aim at the judge in a social media post during Monday's lunch break, calling Engoron a "rogue judge" and "Trump hater."

On Tuesday, Judge Engoron scolded Trump's lawyers by name after they arrived late to court.

Naming Habba, Kise and Cliff Robert, Engoron told the lawyers, "I like to run a tight ship."

Engoron also began Tuesday by warning Trump's attorneys not to argue against earlier rulings, saying: "Trials are...not an opportunity to relitigate what I've already decided. That's why we have appeals."