Joy Malone/Reuters, left; Bing Guan, Reuters, right
- Alina Habba made a bizarre personal attack on Letitia James during fraud-trial closings.
- The Trump lawyer mocked the attorney general for drinking coffee and taking her shoes off in court.
- Habba was accused last year of privately calling James "that Black bitch." That lawsuit settled.
Donald Trump's five-minute closing statement was certainly the most surprising courtroom moment on Thursday, as his civil fraud trial neared its end in Manhattan.
But arguably the day's weirdest moment was the point in defense lawyer Alina Habba's own closing arguments when she mocked, in open court, state Attorney General Letitia James' feet.
It was late morning, and Habba, a frequent and animated defender of the former president on Fox News and other conservative outlets, was at a podium facing the judge.
"I turned around this morning," Habba said, midway through her arguments, which had begun and would end with personal attacks on James.
"And I looked back," she said, gesturing to the attorney general, who had an aisle seat in the courtroom's front row.
"Her shoes were off" Habba said, outrage rising in her already quite loud voice. "And she has a Starbucks coffee!"
James, wearing a grey, tweed dress suit, had at that point slipped one foot, her right, out of its black patent-leather, three-inch-heeled shoes, and was resting her stockinged foot on the floor.
Under New York civil-practice law, lawyers — and pro-se defendants — are not allowed to make personal attacks in closings arguments. The trial judge quickly offered to sustain an objection to Habba's gloves-off, or rather shoes-off, attack.
"If the attorney general is not going to object, I'll allow her to continue," the judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, said with a half-smile, addressing a table full of lawyers for the AG.
Kevin Wallace, one of James' lead lawyers, waved his hand, dismissively, and Habba was allowed to continue.
"This all has to do with the attorney general, your honor," Habba doubled down, arguing that she should be allowed to talk about James in closings because, "She's the plaintiff."
The judge then reminded Habba that her arguments still must relate, somehow, to the trial evidence.
"But the plaintiff is speaking in this case," Habba protested, referring to press conferences and press releases James has held on the Trump fraud case. "She's just not doing it on the record."
Habba has been a frequent and strident critic of James.
In a speech at the ultra-conservative "ReAwaken America Tour" in mid-December, Habba joked that she had just "spent the past 11 weeks in New York City fighting beautiful Miss Letitia James," Newsweek reported, saying the remarks appeared to mock the AG.
"Yeah, seriously, she's a real beaut," Habba added with a laugh.
James is "trying to kill the Trump family, their organization and the presidency," Habba claimed a few days later, speaking at the conservative "AmericaFest" conference in Phoenix, Arizona, the Independent reported.
In July, a former employee of Habba's alleged in a lawsuit that she'd overheard her boss using racist language while ranting against the attorney general in her law offices.
"I hate that Black bitch!" the employee, Na'Syia Drayton, alleged Habba shouted in April after losing a motion in the fraud case. Drayton's lawsuit settled later last year for an undisclosed sum.
James has alleged that Trump fraudulently exaggerated his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion a year in a decade's worth of official banking statements that saved him $169 million in interest payments.
She is seeking $370 million in penalties and a permanent ban on Trump ever running a business in New York, among other relief.
In September, Engoron found, based on two years of pre-trial evidence, that Trump engaged in persistent fraud.
The judge has ordered that Trump lose his New York business charters, a penalty that remains stayed on appeal but which could spell the end of the Trump Organization.