Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba is hurting the former president's case with her performance thus far in his second defamation trial from E. Jean Carroll, one legal expert suggests.
Just hours after jury selection in the trial began Tuesday, Trump's attorneys have already seemed to draw the ire of presiding U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan by complaining about restrictions he issued in the case in a scathing order last week.
In one instance Habba voiced her gripes, according to Politico's Erica Orden, and Kaplan replied, "Ms. Habba, I have heard you. I’ve considered what you have to say. And I have ruled. That’s it. In my courtroom, when a ruling is made, that’s the end, not the beginning, of the argument."
"Every other lawyer already knows this. Habba has to be reminded," attorney Bradley Moss wrote of Kaplan's remark on X/Twitter.
Habba went on to ask Kaplan to adjourn the trial so Trump did not have to choose between attending his mother-in-law's funeral and the trial.
“I am asking you, sir, now for a one-day adjournment of this trial” Thursday to “allow my client to be there so that he can be present for every day of this trial as he has a right to be,” Habba said.
“I am not stopping him from being there,” Kaplan replied.
“No, you’re stopping him from being here, Your Honor,” Habba insisted.
“The argument is over,” Kaplan shot back.
"Judge Kaplan is taking exactly zero s**t from Trump & his lawyers in the Carroll case," tweeted CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen.
Moss said Habba's behavior "is called performing for the client. It's not helping."
Moss urged law students to "ensure that if you are ever in court you do not mimic the behavior of Mr. Trump's lawyers. This type of commentary and disdain for the judge does not help your case."
