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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
An attorney and spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump had nothing but scorn for New York Attorney General Letitia James in an interview last week, during which she described the state’s top prosecutor as “not that bright.”
“She’s just not that bright. I’m sorry, I have to say it,” attorney Alina Habba told Newsmax TV, adding that she doesn’t believe James has a good case. “I’ve seen their case; I’ve seen their lawyers. They don’t know what they’re talking about.”
James filed a $250 million civil lawsuit against Trump and his company, claiming that for years, he defrauded banks by overvaluing his properties in order to get better loan terms. In addition to the massive fine, James seeks to bar the former president from doing any business in the state of New York.
Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the case, has already ruled in September that Trump was guilty of defrauding banks, but he’s been openly hostile to the former president and his legal team throughout the trial thus far.
“Just because a bank who’s giving you a loan says it’s worth what the loan amount is, which is what happens when anybody takes a loan out, they’re never going to say the real value,” she continued, per The Hill. “They’re going to say what they want to say and not a penny more, or what the loan amount is and not a penny more.”
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“She needs to educate herself, maybe go to some — I don’t even know how to express how ridiculous this is,” Habba said. “It’s like being in a circus with a bunch of — I mean, what I want to say I can’t say on TV, but it’s crazy. You know, it’s just ridiculous. Anybody with a brain understands that this is just completely insane.”
While many have predicted that Engoron will eventually find Trump guilty, it is a civil matter so Trump doesn’t face any jail time. However, Habba said earlier this month that the possibility of the former president serving time in prison in other cases is “not even something we think about.”
When host Carl Higbie of Newsmax asked Habba if Trump could go to jail for breaking one of the gag orders, she said, “He’s protected by Secret Service, period.”
“So, I always tell people when they’re panicked, ‘Listen, he’s protected by Secret Service, number one. Number two, he did nothing wrong.’ So, when people go to jail, it’s because they’ve done something wrong. Do we have crooked situations in and out of court? Absolutely. Could they try? Probably, but it won’t work because there is still a trial process, there is still facts, and unfortunately, they’re not going to win on the facts,” she continued.
She added: “Secret Service will always protect President Trump. That’s the truth, they have to wherever he is, but it’s not even something we think about, to be honest, because this is all political. It’s really not— there’s no criminal acts that he’s done. There’s no civil wrongs that he’s done, unless making money for banks is a civil wrong all of a sudden.”
“Orange man bad,” responded Higbie, to which Habba said, “It’s Trump derangement syndrome at its best. I’m not worried about him, he’s not worried, and the American public shouldn’t be worried.”
Meanwhile, a former federal prosecutor ripped James for going after Trump in a case where there was no financially injured party.
In an op-ed, Andrew McCarthy said that James is “inventing losses no one ever suffered” to try to “get Trump.”
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Trump has countered that none of the banks and other companies he did business with over the years ever lost money or were financially injured in any way.
McCarthy essentially supports Trump’s argument, writing in National Review: “The case against the former president lacks victims, so Tish James and Arthur Engoron are inventing some.”