Government

Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Nopes Out To Spend More Time With His PAC Money

You won't have Habba to kick around any more!

By  
on
Screen Shot 2022-07-21 at 3.55.53 PM

Alina Habba (headshot from Habba Madaio LLP)

It’s a sad Monday at Above the Law as we grapple with the news that Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba will be leaving his legal team to take a position full time at his Save America Super PAC.

On Friday, Trump announced that Habba would be withdrawing as lead attorney defending him in the New York Attorney General’s civil suit to become “legal spokesperson and general counsel” at the PAC. This will not be the first check Habba got from Save America, which has been paying Habba Madaio & Associates to represent the former president in his many civil cases. And in October, Habba took a position with MAGA Inc., yet another Trump Super PAC.

But now she’ll be cutting out the middle man, as well as the legal work, which is probably for the best.

Habba is best known in these pages for netting herself and Trump a million dollars in sanctions for filing that idiotic RICO suit against Hillary Clinton, James Comey, and half the Democrats in DC. She represented Trump throughout much of the legal wrangling in the first E. Jean Carroll defamation case, although Joseph Tacopina and Susan Necheles actually tried the case, which resulted in a $5 million verdict. But thus far, Habba remains the attorney of record on the second E. Jean Carroll defamation suit, which is scheduled to go to trial in January.

Whether the rest of Trump’s legal team, which sniped about her constantly, will regret her absence is an open question. But here at ATL, we will miss her dearly.

Sure, Trump has found a new cadre of lawyers willing to file garbage suit after garbage suit in an effort to goose his fundraising by spamming the federal docket. But no one can send a “spoiliation” letter to the Pulitzer Prize Committee demanding that it retract prizes for the New York Times and Washington Post with the same intoxicating mix of righteous indignation and disregard for basic civil procedure like Alina Habba.

Sponsored

Now Trump’s got Florida lawyers willing to drag his DC and New York foes 1,200 miles south on the theory that having a website accessible in Okeechobee County subjects them to jurisdiction there. But we will miss those heady days of LOLsuits against errant members of Trump’s family and assorted media outlets for tortious journalisming and suchlike, not to mention her habit of shittalking judges even as she was arguing cases before them.

Habba was always willing to go on television to inveigh against “litigious prosecutors,” admit to leading her client into a case against his will, and boast of her many courtroom victories — although she didn’t name any, and honestly we are drawing a blank on that one, too.

But what she lacked in actual legal success she made up for with her willingness to go on rightwing media and parrot absolutely any bonkers talking point, from threatening “mayhem” if Trump is prosecuted for his crimes to accusing the FBI of planting evidence. And her new position with the PAC will allow her lots of time to do just that.

“It is an honor to be asked by such a leader as President Trump to help Save America. Being able to devote more time to addressing publicly his many legal matters is the privilege of a lifetime,” she said on Friday.

So, let’s take a moment of silence to honor Habba’s storied legal career. And don’t cry because the era of legal filings boasting that her boss merely sexually assaulted and did not rape a woman are over. Smile because we actually got to see a federal judge react to a lawyer describing opposing counsel as “asinine” in a written motion

Sponsored

In the end, there was so much winning, Trump must have finally gotten tired of it after all.

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

Topics

, , , ,