7 Times Alina Habba Was Called Out For Being Trump's Worst Lawyer

Donald Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, might be an asset to his fundraising squad, but she's often been criticized as a liability to his legal team. Soon after becoming Trump's attorney in 2021, Habba was assigned to Summer Zervos' defamation and sexual assault suit against the former president. However, Zervos withdrew her complaint only a few months later and the MAGA team proclaimed this as a victory for Habba's legal prowess as well as a display of Trump's innocence. In reality, as a source clarified to the Daily Beast, Zervos actually ditched the suit because it dragged on without progress for five years.

Nowadays, it's pretty clear that Habba is no legal genius. While other lawyers at the very least understand the importance of reasoning with the judge and jury to plead their client's case, the New Jersey attorney repeatedly argues with judges in the courtroom, refuses to follow their orders, and then complains about receiving unfair treatment. Habba seems more concerned with playing the zealous Trump advocate and raking in donations than convincing the judge and jury. Unsurprisingly, these grievous errors haven't escaped the public eye. Here are seven times Habba was tagged as Trump's worst lawyer.

It's pretty common knowledge that, in 2023, Alina Habba's case against The New York Times was dismissed, and that her client Donald Trump was ordered to pay $392,638 to cover their legal fees as a result. However, you may not know that the suit was thrown out partly because it was riddled with amateurish mistakes. Presiding justice Judge Robert Reed highlighted multiple legal errors, duplicated claims, and even false allegations. He further stated that the suit "fail[ed] as a matter of constitutional law," which is legal speak for "they didn't have any grounds to sue."

Judge Reed also reminded Habba that the First Amendment protected reporters who searched for and revealed the truth. Finally, he pointed to Trump's long history of suing media outlets and reminded her that "the revised anti-SLAPP law was specifically designed to protect reporters" from people like them. Ouch, right to the lawyers' oath!

In 2022, Alina Habba filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and 30 other members of the Democratic Party, accusing them of plotting to steal the 2016 election from Donald Trump. However, the defendants' lawyers soon noted numerous errors in both her claims and the filing itself. When they communicated this to Habba, she promised to fix the mistakes but instead submitted 80 extra pages of documents, which did nothing to address them. Ultimately, in January 2023, Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed her case, professing that "no reasonable lawyer would have filed it." He also confirmed that Habba's filing contained inaccurate information alongside several fabricated occurrences. 

In one instance, she falsely claimed that the previous FBI director had prosecuted Trump. Another major issue was that one of the claims relied on information supplied by Russian Intelligence. The judge found this ironic considering the former president had previously, and rather vociferously, professed to have no involvement with the Russians whatsoever. In the end, Trump and Habba were sanctioned a whopping $987,989.39. Amusingly, she confidently spun the narrative to a crowd of MAGA supporters by asserting that loyally representing Trump had unfairly cost her money.

Donald Trump's former lawyers have made it crystal clear that they do not like Alina Habba. And considering that she often willingly picks flattering her boss over protecting his legal interests, we can't blame them. In August 2023, the former president's Washington legal team requested that the judge set the trial date for his election obstruction (aka Capitol riot) case to 2026 in order to be fair. Days later, Habba went on Fox News and destroyed their major argument.

Among multiple other wild claims, she contended that Trump didn't need to prepare for the suit and could stand trial at any point simply because he's so naturally truthful. Further, "He also knows the facts because he lived them. [...] What is he going to have to be prepped for? The truth? You don't have to prep much when you've done nothing wrong," (via X, formerly known as Twitter). We can almost see Trump's other lawyers giving Habba the side eye and going, "Thanks a lot!"

Alina Habba has a lengthy history of attacking judges who don't rule in her favor. Following Judge Arthur Engoron's decision in the civil fraud case, she decried him to the media as "unhinged" and biased, per NBC News. Worse still, the New Jersey lawyer doesn't always wait until the case has concluded to question the presiding justice's character, which is bewildering considering attorneys typically try to stay on their good side at least until a ruling has been made. On April 25, 2024, only a few days into the criminal hush money case handled by Trump's lawyers, Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, Habba told Newsmax that she didn't think either the judge or the jury would "do the right thing," (via X).

When critics indicated that Habba seemed to be making excuses for her client's eventual loss, she responded on X that very same day, writing, "Let me be very clear: The truth firmly stands with the president. He did nothing wrong and a fair hearing will expose this sham case for what it is — a partisan hoax designed to interfere in the election. President Trump will prevail." At this point, we're sure Blanche and Necheles would just like her to go away.

After watching Alina Habba steal the spotlight in E. Jean Carroll's trial for all the wrong reasons, no one was really surprised when Donald Trump spectacularly lost the case. And yet, his lawyer soon began to publicly declare that they didn't get a fair shot because the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, was more partial to Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan. It's worth noting that Lewis and Roberta are unrelated despite sharing a surname and there are no laws against having the same name as the judge (side note: the justice assigned to Trump's case against Hillary Clinton was also called Donald).

This didn't stop Habba from penning a letter of accusation to the judge, citing a New York Post article using an anonymous source who claimed to have been Roberta's mentor. When she staunchly refuted the allegations, Habba retracted her statements, acknowledging, "Since Ms. Kaplan has now denied that there was ever a mentor-mentee relationship between herself and Your Honor, this issue has seemingly been resolved," (via Newsweek). Attorney Andrew Fleischman later pointed out on X that Habba's letter actually highlighted the part of the law that nullified her argument.

During E. Jean Caroll's second defamation case against Donald Trump, in January 2024, Alina Habba repeatedly attempted to object at the pretrial but was continuously overruled by Judge Lewis Kaplan. After this happened several times, Habba complained: "I don't know how to try this case, Your Honor." Commenting on her statement, MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell mused, "Imagine sitting in the courtroom and hearing the lawyer, who you are paying, say [this]." In response to Habba, Judge Kaplan firmly stated, "I have heard you, I have considered what you have to say, I have ruled. In my courtroom, when the ruling is made, that is the end, not the beginning of argument," (via YouTube).

During another trial session, the judge reprimanded Habba for not knowing how to present evidence, explaining, "Ms. Habba, this is Evidence 101. [...] No, we are not going to read out loud a document not yet in evidence. We are going to take a break here and you're going to refresh your memory about how you get a document into evidence," (via Newsweek). Hence why one X user hilariously opined that Habba made the law degree she obtained from Widener look worthless.

One of the strongest claims against Donald Trump in the hush money trial came from his former fixer, Michael Cohen, who alleged that Trump hired and paid him to keep Stormy Daniels quiet. While the former president's lawyers tried to tackle these shocking allegations, Habba damaged his case outside the court. During an April 2024 interview with Newsmax, she posited: "[Trump] was not wrong. You hire lawyers to solve problems, lawyers solve those problems. You pay them, that's it," (via X). Despite her spirited tone, netizens couldn't help but notice that Habba's statements sounded like an admission. 

As one incredulous X user wrote: "Did she just admit that it actually happened?" This wasn't the only time that Habba's support for Trump during his hush money trial backfired either. The outspoken attorney also gave an interview on Fox News, notably as the controversial politician's "legal spokesperson," directly attacking Daniels even though Judge Juan Merchan had forbidden anybody involved with the case from speaking publicly about witnesses. Habba's statements risked earning Trump another sanction for violating the gag order and solidified her position as his worst lawyer (quite an achievement).