What is Alina Habba's deep game?

Politics & Elections
41

That’s the deal.

If Trump beats any of the charges against him, she will be known as the attorney who got Satan himself acquitted at least once, so she’ll never starve for retainers.

If he doesn’t, I’m sure others will be impressed by her performance nonetheless, and she’ll never lack for television appearances. And if someone like Lauren Boebert or JD Vance can get elected to office, I’m sure Habba can manage it as well.

There’s no shortage of work for MAGA pitbull attorneys who look like strippers. She’ll never starve.

Maybe a hijack here, but I just wanted to point out this didn’t actually happen, at least not like that. The legal explanation is too complicated for a layman like me to explain, but under New York law, because this was an equitable relief trial, past legal precedent held that the defendant isn’t entitled to a jury. Therefore since the DA checked the “no jury” box, that would have prevailed over Habba ticking the “yes jury” box.

An alternate stratagem would be for Habba to tick the “yes” box and then use the appeals process to make a big, public deal of it. They wouldn’t have prevailed, but their chances certainly wouldn’t be much worse, and it would make Trump out to be an even bigger victim. So although Trump was never going to get a jury here, in my opinion Habba dropped the ball as a PR surrogate by not making the most of that.

42

Ooh, the “run for Congress” plan didn’t occur to me and that was a terrible oversight on my part. Of course. GOP representative is now totally performative and she obviously understands that.

43

McConnel can bemoan a lack of quality candidates again. The party of responsibility: running two floozies in the house, a drug/alcoholic doctor in Texas, a quack doctor from a different state for senator in Pennsylvania, a CTE afflicted/sex abuser/rapist in Georgia for senator who also didn’t live in the state., and rumbling about running the murderer Rittinhouse for congress. Only the best!

44

I work with a LOT of PhDs in hard sciences. I can show you some utterly stupid chemists.

Seriously. They can repeat a lot of knowledge. They can’t think to save their lives.

And no, this isn’t typical. Most are in fact very smart. But there are some people who just do school good.

45

Right. The George Santos career plan.

46

You know, I’ve always assumed that Trump ignores most of the advice given to him by his legal team.

But if this were not the case, if everything he does and doesn’t do during his legal cases reflects the advice of counsel….well, I’d have to wonder whose side they are really on.

What if his lawyers really are saying……Donny boy, best chance for winning this case is to repeatedly insult the judge. While you’re at it, maybe you should launch an attack on the people he cares the most about, like his clerk and his wife. Make sure it’s a detailed public attack, the kind that inspires your followers to make threats of sexual assault and death. After all, this is a bench trial and this judge is the sole arbitrator of the fate of the business you’ve spent your life building.

When you testify, don’t bring up any facts, they aren’t important. Just keep up the attacks, and add in a bunch of fact-free bravado about how great you are and how much everyone but the judge loves you. Don’t smile, don’t be charming, be as nasty as you possibly can. That’s your winning strategy, Donny Boy.

Why, I might think his lawyers really weren’t on his side.

I’m sometimes baffled by the way Trump self-sabotages his legal cases……so much of his self-professed “persecution” could’ve been avoided if he’d just act like a normal person and play the game for a few minutes.

He’s a con man and he does - or he did at one point- have an ability to be charming. The one thing that always struck me about the Zelensky scandal that lead to impeachment #1 was how a well-crafted thirty second speech could’ve made the whole thing go away.

You elected me because I’m a businessman and I’m used to playing by a different set of rules. Im sorry, I got carried away. I would like to extend my apologies to both President Zelensky and Joe Biden.

That would’ve been it- break character for thirty seconds, and no impeachment, no scandal, no legal fees.

And while I believe that he was guilty in the E Jean Carroll case, I also think her evidence wasn’t really strong and if he really wanted to be found not liable, he probably could’ve taken the stand and politely and respectfully said that while he was sorry for what happened to her, that a lot of time had passed and her memory of his involvement must be flawed, because he wasn’t there. So either he’s actually incapable of faking polite and respectful for 10 minutes, or else he wanted to lose.

Really, my only conclusion is that Trump is so into his persecution complex that he’s trying to lose. Which might actually work as a political strategy, except he’s always losing in that arena as well.

But he’s been able to convince his followers that losing is the new winning, so maybe he’s on to something.

47

Trump = professional victim, perpetually aggrieved and a sad whiner.

48

First Lady?

49

Not that I expect anyone is wondering, but… in Arabic the name Habba حَبَّة means a single grain or a single seed; also, it’s the word for a pill.

50

So the English equivalent would be Alison Pill?

51

It’s all irrelevant. They only need to repeat the mantra to the press: It’s a witch hunt. Trump would not be in half this trouble if he had not been president and still is quite noisy in the media. Aside from the ongoing election hoopla.

So there is a grain of truth in the witch hunt. But most of it is getting to him for past crimes he got away with.

52

When you commit a bunch of crimes and draw attention to them you can hardly call it a witch hunt.

53

Well, yeah, but that’s because half this trouble arises from his crimes as president.

54

For what it is worth, I somewhat agree. If Trump was just some talking head on Fox News no one would care enough to dig deep into his finances, his personal life and every decision he’s made in the past several years… but at the same time, even if he didn’t know what he was getting into back then, he knows damn well by now. Why is he trying to sign up for more of this? If he does become POTUS again, it’s going to be new and old enemies doing everything they can, every single day to ruin his life and career. And yet he actively chooses this. No one is forcing you to run for President, Trump. Being President only swaps your current set of problems for new problems.
And I can tell you what it is not worth: this type of self-inflicted misery is definitely not a form of currency that gets someone out of legal trouble. Trump keeps trying to insist that it is. Sorry Trump, you can’t whine your way out of court and neither can your lawyer. But she might whine her way out of a law license if she keeps it up with the stupidness.

55

This may well be true. I’ve read more than one column that pointed out that white collar crime is significantly under-prosecuted. It’s expensive to investigate, often difficult to prove, and doesn’t give DAs the kinds of sexy headlines they prefer. Had Trump never run for office, he could well have festered in the shadows defrauding financial institutions till he kicked.

It seems obvious he believes the presidency is his “Get out of jail free” card. His legal jeopardy suggests that even if that’s a long shot, it’s his only shot.

56

But he figures he can whine and pout and cry and stamp his little feet into the presidency, if enough people feel sorry for him and get out there to vote.

And then, he figures he can wave the magic presidency wand to make it all go away. That’s his only plan at this point.

That’s why we’ll continue to see the courtroom antics, the whining, the pity parties, the crying about how everyone is so mean to him. The MAGAts love that.

57

Arabic, eh?

Ali Habba and the Portly Thief

58

snort. :crazy_face:

E. Jean Carroll judge bench-slaps Trump’s attorney 14 times over basic lawyering in a single day of testimony

  • Wednesday was the first day of testimony in Trump’s second E. Jean Carroll defamation trial in NY.
  • A fed-up Judge Lewis Kaplan rebuked Trump lawyer Alina Habba at least 14 times throughout the day.
  • “Sit down,” he told her at one point. When she asked for a sidebar, he tersely responded, “No.”

Whoa. :crazy_face:

A non-related question- what is the longest Contempt of court sentence in the USA?

59

In some analysis I read recently (pretty sure on Electoral-vote.com) the reason he shows up in court when he doesn’t have to is that that’s the only way he can get himself in the headlines anymore. Ranting on Twuth or other social media and political rallies are largely ignored by the press.

60

She’s an inexperienced lawyer with a very prominent client. No deep game required; she’ll never have to hunt for work for the rest of her career because the MAGA crowd will hire her. The real question is why Trump hired her, and the answer is “because no competent lawyer wants to represent him.”