Trump Attorney Habba to Newsmax: NY AG James' Trump Lawsuit a 'Dud' Alina Habba (Habba Madiao & Associates)
By Sandy Fitzgerald | Thursday, 06 October 2022 10:26 AM EDT
New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit against former President Donald Trump is a "dud" that won't go anywhere now that the announcements have been made, Alina Habba, one of Trump's lawyers, told Newsmax on Thursday.
"There is no case," Habba said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "There were absolutely no victims … but Letitia, as she was down in the polls, and the midterm elections are coming up, what does she do? She holds this massive conference where she effectively claims that there was some damage. Meanwhile, crime is crazy in New York."
James in September announced that the state was suing Trump, Trump Organization officials, and three of Trump's adult children (Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric) for at least $250 million in penalties on claims that he falsely inflated the value of his assets to generate further profits through banks.
Habba, though, pointed out that Trump is "an incredibly wealthy man with a great, successful company. He had major lenders like Deutsche Bank, for instance, who have their own vetting process, and there was the statement of financial conditions with a massive waiver that said, 'Look, these are what we believe our properties are worth. You do your due diligence.' Which they did, and then they all made money, and there's never been a default notice."
She also called the lawsuit a "political scheme" James is using to get reelected and called her estimates of Trump's properties "a joke."
"She put that Mar-a-Lago is worth $75 million," said Habba. "This man has very little debt. He has these unicorn properties that you really can't go in and compare to anywhere else, plus a few where he slapped the Trump name on it."
But Trump is facing legal challenges from James, and also concerning the raid on his Florida home when other former presidents haven't been challenged on documents, because "he still has a very large political career ahead of him if he so chooses," said Habba.
"My client is ahead in the polls, and every time they try and knock him down, his poll numbers go up," she said. "We welcome it because he's going to fight back, and he continues to do so."
Trump has called on the Supreme Court to look at the Mar-a-Lago case, and Habba noted that Judge Raymond Dearie, chosen as the special master to examine the seized data, is under a "tremendous amount of scrutiny" from both sides.
"I don't think you can say that you're happy with any judge, even if it's a Trump-appointed judge," said Habba about Dearie. "Sometimes they go the other way, and they get concerned because they don't want to look like they're impartial. So the judge right now, I think, is under a tremendous amount of scrutiny.
"I don't have any opinion about Judge Dearie. I think he's going to follow the rules. Do I like the decision he made? No, but you know I don't, I try not to speak ill of judges that are doing their job. Whether he's doing his job or not, though, is yet to be seen."
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