Trump Lawtalker Alina Habba Decries Election Interference Via 'Headlines'

Alina Habba (headshot from Habba Madaio LLP)

Yesterday, erstwhile (???) attorney Alina Habba appeared on Newsmax to call out election interference by the mainstream media. Following a segment where Eric Trump inveighed against Special Counsel Jack Smith, the former president's "legal spokeswoman" complained about nefarious headlines to Matt Gaetz, a sitting congressman guest anchoring the evening news on a conservative network.

Remember something. Every headline that comes out in media -- I don't even know if I would recognize the Daily Beast as a valuable media source -- but the Daily Beast, you know, they come out with these leaks and, you know, I read a little bit more reputable newspapers, but listen, they come out with this for a reason, and everything is done in specific timing. Headlines are done for election interference. Watch.

We know that Hunter's associate was supposed to come out and testify on Monday, I heard now he may not be doing so, but watch, they'll come after Trump again around the same time so that, again, they say, "Look at the shiny ball, guys. Don't look over here. We don't want you to see it. We wanna give you another headline."

Oh, Alina.

Habba was pissed about a story yesterday by The Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery revealing that Donald Trump had waived privilege with respect to Bernie Kerik, who has been subpoenaed for documents and testimony in the January 6 investigation. Kerik, a longtime ally of Rudy Giuliani who was pardoned for multiple felonies by Trump, ran point on the investigation into non-existent election fraud in the swing states. On December 28, 2020, he famously emailed Mark Meadows to demand $5 to $8 million to implement a plan to "force the legislators to do what their constitutionally obligated to do." By which he meant reconvene to steal Biden's electors and award them to Trump. Kerik is reportedly going to testify in August to the grand jury which Trump says is prepared to indict him.

And though Habba is sure that the story was timed to coincide with news about Hunter Biden, it seems more likely that it was precipitated by Kerik's own legal troubles. To wit, he and his attorney Timothy Parlatore have been so obstreperous in their effort to evade discovery in a related civil case that they almost got themselves sanctioned by Judge Beryl Howell.

The case was brought by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who found themselves at the center of a right-wing conspiracy after Giuliani and Trump accused them of feeding thousands of fraudulent ballots into tabulators in Atlanta. The pair sued Giuliani and One America News for defamation, but later settled with the network. Kerik has refused to comply with discovery, claiming that he worked for Giuliani, an attorney for Trump and/or his presidential campaign, and was thus unable to waive the privilege.

In a scathing order on July 13, Judge Howell excoriated Kerik and his attorney Parlatore for their effort to evade discovery, calling it "a paradigm of selective omission that has worked only to delay further Kerik's compliance with his Rule 45 discovery obligations" and ordered them to show cause why they shouldn't have to pay the other side's attorneys' fees. (Giuliani himself was just ordered to pay $89,000 to Wilkie Farr for similar conduct in this very case.)

On the 24th, Kerik and the plaintiffs filed a joint stipulation in which Kerik represented that Trump and his campaign had withdrawn their claims of work product privilege and agreed that they would testify without reservation. Kerik further agreed that he would assert no further claims of attorney-client privilege, and if Trump moved to do so himself, would agree to abide by Judge Howell's edict after in camera review.

So perhaps the timing of this revelation in The Daily Beast had less to do with the current president's son than with public filings in a case against the former president's lawyer.

But Alina wasn't having any of that.

"It is a farce, as Eric said. It is a complete gimmick. And it is election interference," she huffed to Rep. Gaetz, whose main contribution to the segment was to introduce a sizzle reel of liberal commentators calling Judge Aileen Cannon biased because she'd previously rendered a ruling "slightly favorable" to Trump.

The congressman failed to mention that this ruling was unceremoniously dropkicked by conservative appointees on the Eleventh Circuit, but perhaps he would have gotten to it if he hadn't been cut off by Habba, railing against Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who slapped a million dollars in sanction on Habba and her client for filing that garbage RICO suit against Hillary Clinton.

"Nobody in the media talked about that!" she fumed. (LOL.)

But soon she returned to the task at hand.

But what you have again is election interference. They're going to tie him up in litigation, they're going to tie him up in depositions, the trials, all the way up to the 2024 election. That is interference!

Well, congrats from ATL, on the new job, Ms. Habba. We're sure you'll be just as successful here as you were in your previous role as Trump's lawyer.

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