The former president’s legal team requested a trial delay, saying Habba had been exposed to COVID and had a fever. She attended the party one day later.

Donald Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, was spotted rubbing elbows with Republicans in New Hampshire on Tuesday, just the day after asking for a delay in the ex-president’s defamation trial because she was feeling under the weather.

On Monday, one of the nine jurors considering writer E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation suit against Trump was excused for being ill.

Though Judge Lewis Kaplan and Carroll’s lawyers agreed to continue the trial with eight jurors, Trump’s legal team requested a delay, saying Habba had been exposed to COVID and had a fever. She was not wearing a mask during the hearing.

The next day, however, Habba was sighted celebrating Trump’s win in the New Hampshire primary by NBC News’ Garrett Haake.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This is both a civil suit and a state case. Trump would have no pardon power here. Habba is just stupid.

    • sin_free_for_00_days
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      10 months ago

      I keep seeing people say this, and factually/logically it’s true. But according to The Constitution, trump is disqualified from even holding the office. If he gets elected, he’s already talked of suspending The Constitution, political revenge, mass firings of civil service positions unless swearing fealty to him, and being a short term dictator. It feels strange and needlessly bombastic to say this, but there is a chance it’ll be game over.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        If you can explain how Trump can pardon himself from a state civil trial, go for it. Because the much simpler explanation is that Habba is an idiot.

        • sin_free_for_00_days
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          10 months ago

          Well, as I thought I said, if you can say explain how an insurrectionist can be elected, I’ll say how state courts don’t mean shit. Honestly though, I think it’s all academic. trump lost the popular vote by 3 million the first time, and 7 million the second. I can not see him doing any better this time around. Then again, that first win did surprise me, so fuck, who knows? Might be a little harder to launch a coup from the outside. Or maybe he’ll be in jail. Haha, right.

          Edit: And yeah, whatever happens, Habba is indeed an idiot.

      • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 months ago

        But according to The Constitution, trump is disqualified from even holding the office.

        The Constitution provides no explanation for who makes that determination under the 14th amendment and under what standards they are to do so. And that is going to be the core of any legal fight over his candidacy - who determines eligibility under 14A and under what standard. Trump and his lawyers will almost certainly aim for the answer being either Congress or a criminal trial, while most on this sub hope that any state judge of SoS should be able to disqualify him nationally on their opinion alone.

        The authors of the 14th probably didn’t think it was necessary, since they could just go “see that group over there engaged in open rebellion? we mean the people publicly in charge of that”, but that’s…fuzzier with the J6 stuff. It’s not like Trump publicly led the attack on the Capitol, he’s too much of a spineless wimp for that.

        • dhork@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Furthermore, I am not sure that I really want random State judges determining what counts as insurrection. We already have Greg Abbott claiming that Texas is being actively invaded and the Federal Government is doing nothing about it. If Trump is thrown off the ballot because of the 14th Amendment, I have no doubt that some Texas judge will proclaim Biden as the leader of the Invasion of Texas and throw him off rhe ballot as well…

          … which might be the outcome all of us Lemmings have wanted all along, but not quite like this.

        • sin_free_for_00_days
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          10 months ago

          I could pontificate on the other side, but I think this The Atlantic article does a much better job of explaining the 14th Amendment.