Trump lawyer on New York courts: ‘I don’t have hopes really that high’

(The Hill) – Alina Habba, an attorney for former President Trump, signaled she is not optimistic the New York courts, where the former president’s hush money trial is taking place, will “do the right thing.”

“I don’t have hopes really that high at this moment that the New York courts will do the right thing, that the jury will do the right thing,” Habba said in an interview Wednesday on Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports.”

“We’re in a blue state as you know, Greg,” she told the show’s host. “And I think everything’s by design.”

Habba further claimed the case was “over the statute of limitations” and “brought only after President Trump decided he was going to run for office.”

Habba, who is not representing Trump in his hush money case, has frequently taken shots at the numerous indictments brought against the former president. Jury selection for the New York criminal trial ended last week and witness testimony began earlier this week.

Trump hush money trial: Live updates

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements made to his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, for a payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to stay quiet about an alleged affair with the former president a decade earlier. Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, imposed a gag order against Trump to bar him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and the judge’s family.

Prosecutors said Thursday that Trump violated that order, with Judge Juan M. Merchan already considering whether to hold Trump in contempt and fine him for what prosecutors say were 10 different violations.

The trial, the first criminal trial of a former or sitting U.S. president in history, is expected to last several weeks. It is the first of four criminal cases against Trump to go before a jury.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in a historic case that weighs the limits of presidential immunity, which Trump is arguing makes him safe from prosecution in his three other criminal cases. Trump had asked to skip the New York proceedings Thursday so he could sit in on the high court’s special session, though his request was denied by Merchan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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