OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
An attorney and spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump unloaded on New York Attorney General Letitia James for focusing on her client’s normative business practices as New York City becomes inundated with illegal aliens and rising crime.
In an interview with Breitbart News on Saturday on SiriusXM, attorney Alina Habba claimed the Big Apple “is falling apart” while she pursues a civil fraud trial against Trump after she campaigned on a platform to “get” the then-president.
“She sits there. She sits there, usually takes a couple of notes, and then when there’s a moment to go out to the press, she does her press,” Habba told the program.
James filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, accusing him of overvaluing his properties to get better loan rates. In addition to the fine, she seeks to bar him from doing business in the state. The judge presiding over the case, Arthur Engoron, has already ruled that Trump committed fraud.
Trump, meanwhile, has argued that financial documents filed with banks where he sought loans contained typical statements instructing those institutions to do their diligence when it came to valuing his properties. He has also pointed out that none of the banks he did business with were harmed or lost money.
“She is only there on high-profile days. She does not come any other day,” Habba said of James. “But she’s been there so much while the city is falling apart.
“But it’s quite telling as to what her priorities are as attorney general. And when you take that oath of office, your priority should not be yourself. Your priority should not be your politics. And it should not be trying to achieve a self-interested mission. It should be about taking care of the city,” Habba continued.
“What we see … is a politically-motivated AG, who said she was going to get Trump and has been sitting there on the sidelines like she’s eating popcorn watching the show. And it’s disturbing,” she noted further. “Again, it just goes to point this is a politically-motivated witch hunt, my clients would call it and, and her behavior is incredibly telling.”
She also noted the biased nature of the trial, including episodes where Engoron would spar with Trump’s attorneys and even with the former president himself during his testimony last week.
“It’s just been weeks and weeks and weeks of obvious different treatments,” she said, adding that during Trump’s testimony, Engoron often interrupted.
“Engoron would just cut him off and tell him, ‘No, no, no, no, I don’t want to hear it,'” she said, noting as well that during one particularly heated moment, the judge actually told Trump he wasn’t there to hear what the former president has to say.
“That was the frustration, and my client was definitely frustrated. And as his advocate and lawyer, I spoke up, and I said, ‘You need to listen to what the president has to say — he has a right to explain what he did. You can’t cut him off,'” Habba said.
“And he said, ‘I’m not here to listen to what he has to say. Sit down!’ and slammed the table twice,” she added.
“And I just don’t tolerate that, like I said, in any planet. But it’s clearly a factor of this case,” she said. “We are seeing a clear bias, and it’s a problem in this country. It really is.”
Asked whether she and fellow Trump lawyer Chris Kise were laying the groundwork for filing for an appeal or a mistrial, Habba balked somewhat.
“We will be taking all appropriate measures, and when we do, I’m happy to come back on and talk about them, but until then, I have to keep my ethics in mind. And we have some privileged information, but once it’s out there, I’m happy to talk,” she said.
