Alina Habba's Firing From Big Case Ignites Speculation Over Her Future As Trump's Attorney
Donald Trump has been able to keep a number of lawyers quite busy over his career, perhaps never more so than now. One of Trump's lawyers is Alina Habba, and she was the lead lawyer for Trump during his E. Jean Carroll defamation case. She also represented Trump in his New York fraud trial, which had the same outcome as the Carroll case — Trump was found guilty and is appealing the verdicts. But Habba and her law firm — Habba Madaio & Associates — have been fired by Allen Weisselberg, former CFO for the Trump Organization and one of the co-defendants on the New York fraud trial case, per an April 7 filing with the court. It could mean that this gives Habba more time to focus on Trump. Some, however, seem to think that this could mean Trump might also be thinking about moving to a different lawyer soon.
One person wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: "I'm guessing as a Chief Financial Officer Weisselberg understands basic math. He saw Alina Habba parlay a $10 million lawsuit into an $83.3 million judgement against Trump. Weisselberg decided he didn't need that kind of help." Others seemed to agree. One person posted, "She's the kind of attorney that would get you the death penalty for a speeding ticket."
Alina Habba could be in hot water if she knew a Trump witness was lying
Alina Habba could be in trouble with the Allen Weisselberg situation beyond the potential of losing Donald Trump as a client. Weisselberg pled guilty to lying under oath during the Trump Organization fraud trial, and he's now set to serve five months at Rikers, his second stint behind bars in connection to his work with Trump.
"The lawyers [including Habba] could face bar discipline if they knew that this testimony was false and did nothing," law professor Rebecca Roiphe told The Daily Beast. "The state bar attorney grievance committee could initiate its own investigation or the trial judge could make a referral."
Other lawyers, including some that used to work for Trump, have made their feelings on Habba clear. Spoiler alert, it's mostly been negative, particularly after Habba's behavior in court during the E. Jean Carroll case — Judge Arthur Engoron called her out a number of times for inappropriate conduct. She was even threatened with jail time if she kept interrupting him. No comment yet from Habba about Weisselberg's change of lawyer.