Alina Habba's role as one of Donald Trump's most trusted attorneys may be coming to an end after just over a year.
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On Monday, it appeared that Habba was no longer representing the former president in the lawsuit filed against him by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accuses Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s. The former president has denied the allegations.
Instead, Trump has hired high-profile criminal lawyer Joe Tacopina to represent him in the sexual battery and defamation suits due to head to trial in April. He had downplayed the significance of Tacopina replacing her as Trump's lead counsel in the Carroll case.
"While I appreciate the left-wing media's attempt to fabricate any story to fit their narrative, I am so happy to have Joe step in and assist," Habba told Newsweek. "I handle a half a dozen cases for the president and there is no one more in the president's corner outside of his family than I am."
The decision to remove Habba from the Carroll suit arrived days after Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sanctioned Habba, along with Trump, for filing "frivolous" lawsuits against Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James Comey, among others.
Alina Habba's role as one of Donald Trump's most trusted attorneys may be coming to an end after just over a year.
On Monday, it appeared that Habba was no longer representing the former president in the lawsuit filed against him by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accuses Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s. The former president has denied the allegations.
Instead, Trump has hired high-profile criminal lawyer Joe Tacopina to represent him in the sexual battery and defamation suits due to head to trial in April.
alina habba trump lawyer
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba leaves Trump Tower to meet with New York Attorney General Letitia James for a civil investigation on August 10, 2022, in New York City. Habba's role as ... More GETTY IMAGES / JAMES DEVANEY / GC IMAGES
He had downplayed the significance of Tacopina replacing her as Trump's lead counsel in the Carroll case.
"While I appreciate the left-wing media's attempt to fabricate any story to fit their narrative, I am so happy to have Joe step in and assist," Habba told Newsweek.
"I handle a half a dozen cases for the president and there is no one more in the president's corner outside of his family than I am."
The decision to remove Habba from the Carroll suit arrived days after Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sanctioned Habba, along with Trump, for filing "frivolous" lawsuits against Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James Comey, among others.
The suits—thrown out by Middlebrooks in September 2022—accused Clinton, the federal government, and other Democratic figures of conspiring to damage Trump's chances of winning the 2016 election by weaving "a false narrative" of his campaign's alleged ties to Russia.
In his ruling ordering Trump and Habba to jointly pay nearly $938,000 in legal costs for the 31 defendants, Middlebrooks said the suits were "drafted to advance a political narrative" and should "never have been brought."
"Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it," the judge wrote in his ruling. "Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim."