The fact that Alina Habba is managing discovery for the former president in his New York civil fraud case, according to a former Trump lawyer, would point to a directionless legal defense.
Judge Arthur Engoron interrupted Trump at his court appearance a few hours earlier. The former president and the Trump Organization misled banks and insurers by misrepresenting the worth of their assets, according to a summary decision issued by Engoron in September. The judge will shortly determine whether or not Trump has to give up the $370 million that Attorney General Letitia James of New York is requesting.
Tim Parlatore, a former Trump lawyer, discussed the situation on Laura Coates Live on CNN.
“When you think about it, Chris Kise–” he said before Laura Coates noted Kise is serving on Trump’s legal team.
“The attorney,” she clarified.
“He’s not a trial attorney,” Parlatore continued. “He’s an appellate attorney. And so, one of the reasons why he’s there is probably just to prep this case for an appeal.”
“Talk to me about the counsel that’s there,” Coates said. “Who is, do you think – you’ve been his attorney before – who’s controlling this? Is the dog wagging the tail, or is the tail wagging the dog?”
Parlatore responded by throwing some shade at Habba.
“When it comes to this case, I think that in large respect it’s been kind of un-led for a while,” he replied. “I know earlier on when Ronald Fischetti was on it, he was handling it appropriately. Of course, he unfortunately passed away. But you know, with Alina Habba handling discovery, that’s not something where I think anybody’s really at the wheel. And so now you get into this trial where it does seem to me to be kind of a combination of building a record for the appeal and putting out things into the media that are helpful to the campaign.”
Parlatore went on to say that the legal strategy of Trump’s team appears to be to try to “convince this trial judge to get so mad that he makes bigger mistakes for the appeal.”
