Trump attorney said judge won’t allow jurors time off for religious holiday — which isn’t true
Donald Trump lawyer Alina Habba made a false claim about the jury selection process, according to Mediaite, regarding her former client's first criminal trial, which began Monday, April 15.
The Independent reports that Habba — who represented the MAGA hopeful in veteran journalist E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit against him — "has rebranded herself as a 'legal adviser' to the former president as he goes on criminal trial for the first time in his hush money case."
During a Tuesday Fox News interview, host Todd Piro asked Habba, "Do you think Donald J. Trump will be able to get a fair trial?"
READ MORE: Weisselberg perjury allegations could put Alina Habba’s career at risk: attorney
She replied, "There’s no chance. There’s no chance of a fair trial here. Remember, just because it’s a jury doesn’t mean that the judge can’t sway them to go one way or another, or make things difficult so that jury selection is impossible. That’s what’s happening."
The Trump attorney continued, "Yesterday, they spent the first few hours doing things that probably should have been done before a jury was waiting. That discourages jurors to want to sit on a panel, and then they come in and they’re told that they can’t get off from Passover if they observe it, and that you’re going to have no break other than Wednesday in the middle of the week. So that messes up everybody’s schedules and people don’t want to sit for that. That’s why we saw half of the jurors say that they could not be impartial and want to walk."
Mediate reports Judge Merchan "actually told the courtroom that there would be 'no proceedings on any day or time that conflicts with the religious observance of any sworn juror,'" making Habba's claim incorrect.
Also on Tuesday, a slew of lawyers and legal experts blasted the Trump lawyer after she alleged during another interview that her client is being denied due process, which includes the "right to question witnesses, screen jurors, be presumed innocent until proven guilty and be granted a fair and impartial ruling," and more.
READ MORE: Trump blew up at attorney Habba for offering to feed opposing team lunch: 'He was so mad'
"Not even allowing a person due process, the right to go sit in front of the Supreme Court and hear a case that determines many lawsuits that are currently against President Trump on immunity, on grounds for immunity," Habba said.
She alleges the judge is denying the former president due process by barring him from attending oral arguments in the US Supreme Court next week — in which attorneys will make their case for Trump's immunity from federal prosecution.
"One would hope a lawyer would know that due process does not include attending an oral argument at the United States Supreme Court," law professor Anthony Michael Kreis tweeted in response to Habba's assertion.
Watch the video below or at this link.
READ MORE: 'Are we sure she went to law school?' Attorneys mock Trump lawyer for 'due process' remark
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