Trump’s not preparing much for historic criminal trials, lawyer Alina Habba says
Donald Trump is so confident in the outcomes of the four criminal cases against him, he’s not preparing much for the trials, one of his lawyers claimed Sunday.
Echoing the former president’s trademark bluster, attorney Alina Habba said he doesn’t need to prep much for trials looming across the country as his reelection campaign revs up.
“If it was a normal person … I could understand the concern,” Habba told “Fox News Sunday” when asked what Trump is doing to get ready. “President Trump is not your average person. He’s incredibly intelligent and he knows the ropes.
“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, so that I’m not concerned with.”
Since March, Trump has been indicted in Manhattan over his hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, in Florida on his handling of classified documents, in Washington on charges he illegally tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election and in Georgia over alleged election interference there. Trump has denied all the charges.
Habba repeated Trump’s claims that the cases are aimed at preventing his return to the White House, but said he was unlikely to face multiple trials at the same time.
“These trial dates also are going to move,” she predicted. “It’s unrealistic, it’s theatrics and no judge is going to say that you can be on two trials at once in two different states.”
The first trial in the Georgia case, in which 18 others were indicted, is set for October. The Manhattan trial has been scheduled to start in March, although Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has voiced willingness to push it back if there’s a conflict with another criminal case.
Trump’s most recent indictment, Thursday in Georgia, has proven to be a boon for his campaign, in which he was already far ahead of the pack of GOP candidates.
The night that he was booked on 13 charges at Fulton County jail, he blasted out his mug shot and used it to raise funds.
“It will be the single most powerful photo in the history of online fundraising,” a Trump campaign staffer crowed to CNBC at the time.
As of Saturday, he’d raised $7.1 million off the mug shot, according to his campaign. It had been selling a variety merchandise like T-shirts and coffee mugs featuring his glowering face.
With a majority of Republicans still backing Trump for office, his GOP opponents have had to walk a fine line between defending the former president in terms of the criminal cases and arguing they could do a better job than him in the White House.
Most of them raised their hands when asked at last week’s presidential debate whether they would support Trump even if he’s convicted.
That seemed to disappoint candidate Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas.
“I was surprised at that. That didn’t seem to be a difficult question to me,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
While criticizing the prosecutions, Habba praised the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee for opening an investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is bringing the Georgia case against Trump. She said Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the cases in Florida and Washington, should be probed, too.
“It’s definitely political,” Habba said. “They intentionally waited years and years and years for something that happened to bring it now when he is the leading candidate for the Republican Party.”