OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Alina Habba, Donald Trump’s lawyer, said that the former president can’t get a fair trial in the hush money case because the jury seems to be biased about politics.
Habba, who is not representing Trump in the falsifying business records trial in New York, said during an interview on Fox News that she is worried that “politicized judges and blue juries” will work against him.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is in charge of the hush money trial, fined Trump $9,000 and told him he could go to jail for breaking a gag order that said he couldn’t talk about possible witnesses in public.
Trump, the likely Republican presidential candidate in 2024, has said many times that Merchan is biased against him. He also tried to get the trial moved from Manhattan, which is a stronghold for Democrats, to Staten Island, which is a stronghold for Republicans, to improve his chances of getting an impartial jury.
Habba told Fox News that she doesn’t care if the trial proves Trump guilty or not because “the facts are on our side” to suggest he didn’t. What worries her is how the jury will see him no matter what.
“The issue [is] we have politicized judges and blue juries coming in, and they’re supposed to be impartial, but you have a judge tweaking, reprimanding, putting down counsel on the other side, being harder on one side than the other, that affects the jury,” Habba said. “And that’s not fair. It’s not right.”
“Now, if President Trump is given a fair jury, a fair trial like anybody else in this country would be—because his name is Trump, he doesn’t—that’s where my concern is, not the facts. The facts are on our side,” Habba added.
In response to allegations that he arranged for adult film star Stormy Daniels to receive “hush money” from his former attorney Michael Cohen in order to conceal an alleged affair between Daniels and Trump prior to the 2016 election, Trump entered a not guilty plea on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
According to Trump’s corporate records, the funds were declared as “legal fees,” which prosecutors claim was a part of a criminal effort to sway the results of the 2016 presidential contest. While acknowledging that he paid Cohen $130,000 back, Trump insists that he never had an affair with Daniels.
Because he was worried about the potential impartiality of the jury, Trump failed to get the trial moved out of Manhattan in 2023.
“Very unfair venue, with some areas that voted 1% Republican,” Trump posted on Truth Social last April ahead of his historic first court appearance. “This case should be moved to nearby Staten Island—would be a very fair and secure location for the trial.”
Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and senior FBI official, previously rejected Trump’s argument and said there is no precedent for moving the location of trials based on perceived jury bias.
“We tried a 9/11 conspirator in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia—Alexandria, about three miles from the Pentagon—and we were able to assemble a fair jury,” Rosenberg told MSNBC.
“So, you’re not looking for a jury that’s never heard of Donald Trump, Stormy Daniels, or hush money payments. You’re not looking for a jury or jurors that have no opinions.
“You’re looking for jurors who can be fair, who can sit in the courtroom, listen to the evidence, and follow the instructions of the judge,” he added. “That’s all you’re looking for.”
