Maddow and Team E Jean Carroll Take Turns Mocking Trump Lawyer Alina Habba — Laugh it Up on MSNBC – Mediaite
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Team E. Jean Carroll took turns zinging Trump lawyer Alina Habba over her courthouse rant and courtroom antics during the defamation trial that just concluded.
After Trump walked out of court during closing arguments and Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened Trump’s lawyer with jail time on Friday, Trump was hit with a bombshell $83.3 million judgment for defaming Carroll while he was president. Following the judgment, Habba went on an angry rant to reporters outside the courthouse.
Carroll and attorney Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan and Shawn Crowley were guests on Monday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show for an extensive interview. Maddow opened one segment with a few seconds of Habba’s rant.
That led to several minutes of mirthful dunking on Habba — but also a measure of empathy from Crowley:
QUESTION: Alina, do you regret it?
ALINA HABBA, ATTORNEY FOR FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No. No.
I’m glad you asked me that question. No, I’m not having any second thoughts about representing President Trump. It is the proudest thing I could ever do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Yes, but how did it go?
(LAUGHTER)
MADDOW: That was former President Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba on Friday just after the jury ordered her client to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll.
We’re back now with Ms. Carroll, who did successfully sue Donald Trump for defamation twice. She’s here along with her attorneys, Robbie Kaplan and Shawn Crowley.
Thank you all for sticking with me.
Let me actually just stick — I wasn’t going to ask this, but — and it may be rude, so you don’t have to answer if you don’t want. I will put this either to Ms. Crowley or Ms. Kaplan, if either of you wants to field it.
You are both very experienced trial attorneys. You have been up against some of the best and brightest opposing counsel and all sorts of different trials. How is President Trump’s lawyering? Is he well-represented in court?
KAPLAN: I’m going to let Crowley answer that.
(LAUGHTER)
KAPLAN: But I — but I will say that what you heard just now in that tape of Alina Habba leaving the court and kind of yelling at the reporters, that’s what we heard every single day multiple times during this trial, but yelling at the judge.
And it was unbelievably nerve-racking each time it happened, and it happens multiple times every day.
CROWLEY: Yes. Thanks for handing that one over to me.
(LAUGHTER)
CROWLEY: I think that — I think that she had a hard job.
And you could definitely see a difference between her sort of style when he was in the courtroom and when he was not there. She was much more disciplined and, frankly, acted more like a lawyer when he wasn’t there. When he was, I mean, you could hear him telling her when to object and muttering things and loudly being frustrated with her.
And I think she felt like she had to say things to the judge and to us and sort of put on a performance, like you just saw in front of the TV cameras.
Watch above via MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show.
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