MSNBC's Katie Phang reported Sunday that Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba will be the one to do the questioning of Michael Cohen in court on Tuesday. Habba was also the lawyer on the Trump team who interviewed Cohen for his deposition.
Cohen's testimony last week was delayed by an injury, and while Trump tried to mock him for not having the "guts" to face him, Cohen made it clear the testimony was merely delayed, not canceled.
Many of Trump's lawyers have appeared in court asking questions that appear to be more like press releases or a PR campaign than questions to win a lawsuit.
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Chris Kise, for example, disputed the New York fraud case to Judge Arthur Engoron in a way that was peppered with so many campaign talking points that he told the lawyers he didn't take it seriously.
"When I first heard those arguments, I thought that was a joke," said Judge Engoron. He went on to say that his rulings typically get upheld by higher courts when lawyers try to make similar arguments. Kise was trying to get the case dismissed because no one was hurt, an excuse Trump has given many times in his defense.
"The rule on sanctions is if you've been warned, don't do it. You were warned," Engoron said.
"As a lawyer, I have to make the arguments," Kise claimed.
"The fact that no one was hurt does not mean the case gets dismissed," Engoron said.
Earlier this month Engoron issued a narrow gag order after Trump attacked his court staff. He has since violated it and has been charged a $5,000 fine. During the heated exchange between the lawyers, Engoron told the lawyers they were making "borderline frivolous" arguments.
"This is ridiculous," he said. "All I'm asking is that you lump things together so we do not waste time."
Habba, in particular, has been fined in Florida for what the judge called a "frivolous lawsuit" in which she sued Hillary Clinton along with about 30 other people. Trump and Habba were ordered to pay nearly $1 million.
Raw Story spoke to Cohen Sunday about Habba being the one to question him, referencing the Trump lawyers' knack for being admonished in court. Given that and the need to impress Trump by appearing to be "fighting" for him, we asked how long it might take before Habba is chastised by the judge.
“It’s hard to answer that question as it all depends on how far Alina tries to deviate from direct examination; all in an attempt to score brownie points with Donald," said Cohen.
Trump already lost his fraud case on one charge, but there are five other charges, so it isn't a matter of the Trump Organization being shut down and fined, it's a matter of how much the company will be fined. Instead, Cohen implies, that the lawyers are simply trying to defend Trump's honor publicly in court.
Habba is the Trump lawyer who either forgot or intentionally did not request a jury in the New York case. It's something Trump has complained about for weeks, falsely claiming he was not allowed to have a jury. She later championed herself as being vindicated for the action.
