Attorney Alina Habba, who represented Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump defamation trial in Manhattan (where a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in damages) and in the civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James (where Trump and his businesses were assessed $364 million in penalties) — has been appointed Counselor to the President for Trump’s second administration.
(Habba characterized the fraud verdict as “manifest injustice,” asserting, as Trump said, that it was “the culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt.”)
As seen below, the MAGA loyalist made a dramatic entrance in July at the 2024 Republican National Convention, where she spoke on the final night before Trump took the stage.
NEW: Donald Trump appoints Alina Habba, his personal lawyer, as Counselor to the President.
“She has become a role model for women in Law and Politics, most recently being named Chaldean Woman of the Year,” Trump wrote on Truht Social pic.twitter.com/SYsWHpAZWP
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 9, 2024
In announcing her position, the President-elect wrote of Habba: “Alina has been a tireless advocate for Justice, a fierce Defender of the Rule of Law, and an invaluable Advisor to my Campaign and Transition Team.”
Trump also credited Habba with being “unwavering in her loyalty, and unmatched in her resolve – standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles, and countless days in Court.”
He added that Habba “has become a role model for women in Law and Politics, most recently being named Chaldean Woman of the Year.”
[NOTE: Trump appointed the lawyer and his former campaign advisor Kellyanne Conway as his Senior Counselor to the President during his first term in office. Conway kept the role from 2017 until mid-2020, when she left and became a regular contributor on Fox News.]
Taking the angle that Trump’s purported predilection for loyalty over competence may come back to haunt his incoming administration, MSNBC legal analyst Kristy Greenberg, former deputy chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York and Harvard Law alum, trolled Trump’s Habba appointment.
Greenberg responded to Habba’s appointment on X writing: “May she be as effective a Counselor to Trump in the White House as she was in court.”
[NOTE: Habba has remained in Trump’s orbit longer than many attorneys, despite obtaining legal results that don’t always go his way. In 2021, Habba filed a $100 million lawsuit on Trump’s behalf against The New York Times, three Times reporters and his niece, Mary Trump, for investigating his tax records (which he failed to release publicly during the 2016 presidential campaign as per tradition). In 2023, the lawsuit against the Times and its reporters was dismissed by the judge who said Trump’s claims “fail as a matter of constitutional law,” ordering Trump to pay the legal fees of the Times and its reporters.]
