Former Trump attorney throws shade at Trump lawyer Alina Habba: Nobody “at the wheel”

Trump's legal team has been “kind of un-led for a while," says former Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore

By Igor Derysh

Managing Editor

Published January 12, 2024 10:34AM (EST)

Alina Habba, attorney for former President Donald Trump, gives a statement to members of the media during his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on November 02, 2023 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Alina Habba, attorney for former President Donald Trump, gives a statement to members of the media during his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on November 02, 2023 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore criticized the former president’s legal team after a disastrous round of closing arguments capped off by Trump’s rant attacking the judge. Parlatore said that Trump’s team has been “kind of un-led for a while” when asked who is controlling the case.

“With Alina Habba handling discovery, that’s not something where I think anybody’s really at the wheel. And so now you get into this trial where it does seem to me to be kind of a combination of building a record for the appeal and putting out things into the media that are helpful to the campaign,” Parlatore said, adding that fellow Trump attorney Chris Kise is “not a trial lawyer” and is “probably just to prep this case for an appeal.” The Trump team’s strategy appears to be to try to “convince this trial judge to get so mad that he makes bigger mistakes for the appeal.”

Habba, who previously served as the general counsel for a parking garage company, previously came under criticism from several Trump allies. "He has some lawyers that are very sophisticated with years of experience litigating, and he has now fallen prey to inexperienced lawyers who are just telling him what he wants to hear," a source close to Trump told Axios last year. "It's disconcerting to everyone around him who actually care about him.”


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