Apr 15, 2024 - 13:01
By huffpost.com

Maggie Haberman Recalls Donald Trump 'Literally Poking At' Alina Habba In Frustration

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig talked about how tensions could surface between Donald Trump and his defense team during the former president’s upcoming criminal hush money trial, which is set to begin Monday.

Haberman, on Kaitlan Collin’s “The Source” show, recalled Trump “literally poking” his attorney Alina Habba to take action during earlier civil court appearances.

Being a lawyer for Trump is “a tough gig,” Honig noted during a discussion about Trump attorney Eva Corcoran’s reported departure from the presumptive GOP nominee’s legal team. Corcoran will now be a witness in the case.

Honig named just some of Trump’s former attorneys who have been jailed, indicted and barred. “It’s really hard to think of an example of someone, who’s represented Trump, and come out of it with their financial situation intact, their professional reputation intact, their exposure to crimes intact. It’s a grueling job,” he added.

Haberman agreed that Trump “cycles through lawyers,” that “we have seen this over and over and over again” and it “goes back, frankly, many, many years.”

Honig suggested watching the dynamic that plays out between Trump and his lawyers “because there’s always a little bit of tension at trial.”

“Sometimes, the defense lawyer wants to go one way, the client wants him to be more aggressive here or less aggressive there,” he noted. “And that can bubble over. And sometimes, that gets reflected in the courtroom itself.”

“We’ve seen it already,” suggested Haberman. “At least in the civil cases. There was a lot of Donald Trump, literally poking at his lawyer, Alina Habba to get up.”