Donald Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, has claimed that the former president cannot get a fair trial in the hush money case because of apparent political bias from the jury.
Habba, who is not representing Trump in the falsifying business records trial in New York, told Fox News she is not worried if Trump's actions amounted to a crime, but whether "politicized judges and blue juries" will work against him.
Habba made this claim after Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money trial, fined Trump $9,000 and threatened him with jail for repeatedly violating a gag order preventing him from making public comments about potential witnesses in the case.
Trump, the presumptive Republican 2024 presidential candidate, has frequently suggested Merchan is biased against him and tried to get the trial moved out of the strong Democrat area of Manhattan into the more GOP-friendly Staten Island borough in order to improve his chances of an impartial jury.
Speaking to Fox News, Habba she is not concerned about whether the trial will prove Trump committed a crime as "the facts are on our side" to suggest he didn't, but rather how the jury will perceive him regardless.
"The issue [is] we have politicized judges and blue juries coming in, and they're supposed to be impartial, but you have a judge tweaking, reprimanding, putting down counsel on the other side, being harder on one side than the other, that affects the jury," Habba said. "And that's not fair. It's not right.
"Now, if President Trump is given a fair jury, a fair trial like anybody else in this country would be—because his name is Trump, he doesn't—that's where my concern is, not the facts. The facts are on our side."
Newsweek reached out to Habba via email for further comment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to "hush money" he arranged for his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair she had with Trump a secret in the run-up to the 2016 election.
The money was listed in Trump's company records as "legal fees," which prosecutors suggest was part of an unlawful attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. Trump admits reimbursing the $130,000 to Cohen but denies having an affair with Daniels.
In 2023, Trump failed to get the trial moved out of Manhattan over concerns about potential jury impartiality.
"Very unfair venue, with some areas that voted 1% Republican," Trump posted on Truth Social last April ahead of his historic first court appearance. "This case should be moved to nearby Staten Island—would be a very fair and secure location for the trial."
Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and senior FBI official, previously rejected Trump's argument and said there is no precedent for moving the location of trials based on perceived jury bias.
"We tried a 9/11 conspirator in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia—Alexandria, about three miles from the Pentagon—and we were able to assemble a fair jury," Rosenberg told MSNBC.
"So, you're not looking for a jury that's never heard of Donald Trump or Stormy Daniels or hush money payments. You're not looking for a jury or jurors that have no opinions.
"You're looking for jurors who can be fair, who can sit in the courtroom, listen to the evidence, and follow the instructions of the judge," he added. "That's all you're looking for."
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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