During an episode of Fox News Channel’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” anchor Martha MacCallum sought the perspective of Alina Habba, a lawyer representing former President Donald Trump, regarding the reaction of “The View” hosts to Trump’s potential loss of Trump Tower due to a fraud judgment.
There has been considerable celebration among Trump’s critics over his failure to post the bond required to appeal the fraud judgment, which could result in a substantial financial loss exceeding $460 million if the appeals are unsuccessful.
In particular, the hosts of “The View” were notably gleeful, indulging in mockery and speculative discussions about the fate of Trump Tower, complete with faux tears.
During the segment, MacCallum inquired about the progress of raising the bond and solicited Habba’s response to the apparent joy expressed by “The View” hosts. In reply, Habba condemned the hosts’ remarks as “disgusting.”
MARTHA MACCALLUM, ANCHOR, FOX: But first, let’s go to Alina Habba, an attorney for former President Trump. Alina, good to have you with us. Thank you for being here today.
Tell me a little bit about where you are in this process because in terms of the appeals happening or the Appeals Court deciding — the Appellate Division deciding — that perhaps going to make some modifications to this judgment?
ALINA HABBA, ATTORNEY FOR FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right. Well, our argument in front of the Appellate Division is that forcing him to sell prized properties such as Trump Tower, iconic properties like 40 Wall Street to pursue his appeal is manifesting justice. And it deprives him of that due process that we are all entitled to.
So imagine you can’t reverse selling off Trump Tower on a firesale at a discounted price, we can’t fix that if we win on an appeal. So it’s complete injustice, and only a handful of sureties are approved by the United States Department of Treasury to even underwrite bonds of this size.
So, of those, even those very limited handful amounts, they are limited to policies with even single bonds up to maybe 100 million. None of them except hard assets. They require cash or cash equivalent such as marketable securities. The ask of Judge Engoron is completely ridiculous, he knew that. Or if he didn’t know that, he should have educated himself on it.
But it is intentionally to interfere in the election, to hurt President Trump, to try and ruin his company and ruin a person and a family whose private company, not public company, has made the skyline of New York change forever and made so many jobs, created jobs and taxes to New York.
It’s a disgrace, Martha. So we’re waiting on those reasons that we stated in our appeal and many more but that’s just a summary of what we’re waiting on the Appellate Division to do.
MACCALLUM: Alina, do you have any sense of whether or not the Appellate Division is sympathetic to this argument and what their timeframe might be to respond to it, because five days is not that much time?
HABBA: No, it’s not that much time. And we pressed the fact this is urgent. And I will say the Appellate Division has been great in looking at these things in a timely manner. There were days where we’ve taken things to the Appellate Division and waited to be heard. They heard us.
They definitely, we can tell, have listened to our arguments fairly. You know, don’t forget, this case, the judge had a trial where he disregarded the Appellate Division that shortened the statute of limitations here and said this case was limited and that he just disregarded it.
So that in itself showed to me just put his nose — this judge put his nose up to the Appellate Division, disregarded the rule of law, disregarded the higher court, and in that alone, they should take that into account, let alone the other injustices that we saw for those 11 weeks in trial.
MACCALLUM: Understood. Alina, I want to play something for you quickly from The View and get a quick thought from you on this, and then I’m going swing over to Jonathan Turley. So let’s play what — how excited the hosts of The View are about all this. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, HOST, THE VIEW: Is Letitia James going to go like put a chain on Trump Tower?
JOY BEHAR, HOST, THE VIEW: Nobody wants to lend him the money, in this country anyway. Who knows what’s going to happen with Russia and Saudi Arabia?
UNKNOWN: I can’t wait to see the chains on Trump Tower actually on Fifth Avenue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Yes, what’s your response to the glee around the table on this, Alina?
HABBA: They’re poster women for Trump Derangement Syndrome, and they should seek help. That’s my thoughts on that. I mean it’s pathetic. Why would you want the country to be in demise? People that think like this, the hatred, I hope they go to church and pray on that whoever they pray to, because I don’t hold hatred like that towards anybody, frankly.
And I think that people to say disgusting things like that on national television and not care about the people that work there, not a care about the jobs that they create, is a really sad state of affairs.
