Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb said on Wednesday that former President Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, is a “loser” after last week’s outcome of the defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
“She lost, so she’s a loser. I’m not surprised that Trump is looking for appellate representation,” Cobb said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
His comments come nearly a week after Carroll secured an $83.3 million verdict in a defamation case against Trump, adding to the previous $5 million in damages Trump owed her from a previous defamation case that found the former president liable for sexual assault.
Trump, who has repeatedly denied the assault, has vowed to appeal the verdict, saying on Tuesday he’s “in the process” of interviewing several law firms to represent him, a practice not uncommon when appealing.
Habba, who also represented Trump in a separate civil fraud case in New York, frequently found herself at odds during the Carroll case with U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
He scolded her for making an “inappropriate” comment at one point, reprimanded her over the handling of evidence and even threatened to jail her after she interrupted him to make record of her argument over a slide presentation.
Habba also made a conflict claim against Kaplan, claiming he had a “mentor” relationship with Carroll’s lead lawyer, but quickly dropped the matter after it was refuted.
In the Wednesday interview, Cobb was asked to respond to earlier remarks Habba made on a podcast about her experience working with Trump.
“Winning always helps. He doesn’t want anybody on his team representing him that’s, you know, going to keep failing, of course,” Habba said in the clip played. “Loyalty. It’s something he talks about all the time, but loyalty in not a cryptic mafia way.”
When asked how he thinks Habba handled the case, Cobb said, “I think she’s handled it in the mafia way.”
“She’s done his bidding. She’s articulated his political narrative of victimization and unfairness in the judicial system and made some outlandish claims, including the conflict claims,” he said.
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