Meet Donald Trump’s New York Lawyer, Alina Hubba-Hubba
[guest post by JVW]
As faithful readers know, I don’t blog very often about — or even really pay too much attention to — the various messes that former (and perhaps future) President Donald Trump finds himself in. Frankly, I don’t find him to be all that interesting of a person, though I have recently come to accept him as a part, perhaps even a necessary part, of our political ecosystem, much in the same way that the dung beetle plays a role in nature’s ecosystem.
But I do confess that I have a passing fancy for the collection of flakes, frauds, sycophants, shysters, ignoramuses, ingrates, movers, and marauders that Mr. Trump seems to attract. From Mad Dog Mattis to Omirosa Manigault, there seems to be no shortage of — how shall we put it? — “colorful” personalities who somehow catch the attention of the 45th President of the United States. It takes a special sort of person who is willing to put up with a certain amount of dysfunction and abuse, and some of them have beaten the odds and proved to be very effective at their jobs. Although it helps to be slightly insane when working for a man like Donald Trump, it also turns out not to be an actual job requirement.
In any case, this brings me to the latest member of Team Trump who has stepped into the spotlight, and thank the heavens for it. Alina Habba is a 39-year-old native of New Jersey who serves as the managing partner of her own boutique law firm. No tiresome WASPy silver-spooned Ivy League nitwit* she; her background is instead rather exotic: Chaldean Catholic, the daughter of Assyrian Iraqis who emigrated to the U.S. shortly before she was born. This first-generation real live niece of her Uncle Sam received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Leigh University in Pennsylvania before matriculating to the Widener University School of Law in Delaware. According to The Heavy, she’s currently in her second marriage, this one to a fellow who owns parking garages in New Jersey. The couple have two children together and she serves as stepmother to her husband’s son from a previous marriage.
She is licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and in front of the United States Supreme Court. Her previous clients and cases according to her firm’s website included “a federal class action suit against a New Jersey nursing home accused of various negligent acts and consumer fraud violations, including storing 17 bodies in a storage room in the early stages of the COVID pandemic.” She previously represented Donald Trump in his ongoing legal battles with his niece, Mary Trump.
But forget all of that. The reason that I have rechristened her as Alina Hubba-Hubba is because, well, just look at her! I’ll include a rather fetching screencap below, since I think that is generally acceptable use.
Yowza! How did I not notice this before? I’m pretty agnostic about the fate of Donald Trump in the New York State Supreme Court, but I am definitely going to root for Alina Hubba-Hubba, Esq., especially seeing as how she seems to enjoy needling some jurassic jurist who would be better off watching Matlock reruns and enjoying a mug of warm milk. Mean girls [T]rump old farts every time in my book.
* This should not be construed as a blanket slur on any Ivy League educated lawyers, boss.
– JVW
Easy on the eyes
Appalled (1a9913) — 11/7/2023 @ 7:17 amHard on the ears
Sum of desires
Source of our fears.
Oh my… our sweetie-Aloha has some serious competition JVW…
On a serious note, how on earth is it “a good idea” to antagonize the judge during an ongoing court case?
Is it stooopid naïvety??? Or is this a purposeful tactic agreed on the Trump team to spike the news coverage?
whembly (5f7596) — 11/7/2023 @ 7:23 amI suspect…like his anticipated VP pick….she’s there for a reason. Trump appeals to the prurient. He’s an arm-candy kind of guy. Only a “winner” has a gorgeous attorney.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 11/7/2023 @ 7:58 am#2 — If Trump is going to lose anyway, might as well score political points, I guess. He did admit his thumbs were all over grossly inaccuarate statements, and the statements were designed to persuade DB to lend to him. So he’s gonna lose
And yet, I can’t escape a quesay feeling about this trial — mostly because I feel like the people “defrauded” probably weren’t really. This isn’t widows and orphans investing in a Ponzi scheme. It’s a big bank making loans to a known quantity who probably knew there was a lot of exaggeration going on. Yes, I am sure there is poetic justice with Trump losing his billions. But this wouldn’t be happening if Trump had stayed out of public life.
I think Trump is a fraud and a liar scamming people through politics. The idea of elected officials (who in the case of the AG, campaigned on this very investigation) lifting someone’s business with only an elected judge making the decisions frightens me. But, frankly, our system has a way of dealing brutally with people who are considered dangerous to the system. It has tended to serve us pretty well. We just don’t like to admit it.
Appalled (0343c9) — 11/7/2023 @ 8:57 amIs it stooopid naïvety??? Or is this a purposeful tactic agreed on the Trump team to spike the news coverage?
It’s four-dimensional chess, which the common folk like us don’t understand. She also has hot chick prerogative to get away with a lot of nonsense.
Seriously, at this point I just want everybody involved in the various Trump issues to be on their absolute worst behavior. Let it all burn down.
JVW (86383f) — 11/7/2023 @ 9:02 amShe’s hotter than Tulsi, your other crush, J.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 11/7/2023 @ 9:09 amShe is trying to make a record. No, not Motown or Bonneville Salt Flats. A record that the appeals court will read.
The finding of fraud was by summary judgment and it will be reviewed de novo. The appeals court will examine the record and make its own independent judgment with no deference to Engoron’s findings.
nk (8f0712) — 11/7/2023 @ 9:09 amShe’s hotter than Tulsi, your other crush, J.
Your words are literal violence.
JVW (53403f) — 11/7/2023 @ 9:13 amHa!
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 11/7/2023 @ 9:39 amOur system has never been used to abuse those who are considered “a danger to the system.”
That is the stuff of totalitarian regimes and it would never serve us. That’s hammering the person who dares to speak up and should be loudly spoken out against. We are all Spartacus.
NJRob (7f3268) — 11/7/2023 @ 10:15 amMs. Habba doesn’t seem to understand that she doesn’t dictate the judge’s conduct in his courtroom. Rather, it’s the judge who dictates the conduct of others in his domain, which is why her latest motion for a mistrial–because Trump didn’t gasbag and bloviate enough–will go nowhere.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 11/7/2023 @ 10:48 amNJRob,
Check your Civil War, WWI and WWII history. Eugene Debs, Father Coughlin, and Clement Valladingham are specific individuals I have in mind.
Appalled (1a9913) — 11/7/2023 @ 10:50 amAs Fred would say Habba-dabba-dooo!
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 11/7/2023 @ 10:52 am@4, I tend to agree. I put due diligence on the bankers. If they suspect problems in the valuations, then independently assess the properties and deny the loan or adjust the terms of the loan. There’s always a bit of subjectivity until that property actually goes on the market and demand is tested (clearly Trump was pushing the bounds of what was reasonable). If the banks feel like they’ve been screwed out of interest income, then they should initiate the suit. The feel here is that the government has gone out of its way to police this. Now…..karma and all. It’s fraud…it’s cheating. It’s arrogance and entitlement. However, I suspect damages will be reduced upon appeal.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 11/7/2023 @ 11:05 amMy comment didn’t get through. Must’ve been the use of Wilma and Betty in the same paragraph.
[Odd. I don’t see it in moderation. Perhaps it never reached the server. Go ahead and try again. – JVW]
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 11/7/2023 @ 11:23 am#15 Must be that stone age technology you are using.
Appalled (0343c9) — 11/7/2023 @ 12:08 pmAlina’s hotter than Wilma, too, but Barney really married up with Betty, a total Hanna-Barbera Habba-Habba.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 11/7/2023 @ 12:37 pmNice one, Paul Montagu.
JVW (68130c) — 11/7/2023 @ 1:55 pmThe 1994 flick needed to be remade…probably a seminal moment on the march to wokedom with Rosie ODonnell as Betty. I wonder if Madeleine Stowe, Winona Ryder and Courtney Cox tried out for that part.
urbanleftbehind (9ded4c) — 11/7/2023 @ 1:58 pmRosie as Betty was a casting catastrophe.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 11/7/2023 @ 2:01 pmAll publicity is good publicity and she is getting plenty.
asset (ac00cd) — 11/7/2023 @ 2:13 pmTrump was going to lose anyway.
steveg (3fbfdf) — 11/7/2023 @ 2:51 pmThe Judge already had made up his mind.
She will appeal until Trump’s check bounces
I think she intended to turn the judges conduct into a negative for him and his clerk. The judge doesn’t look as good as he did before he met this woman, so she did well to turn the tables.
The Judge also gave her a chance to plop down the “strong woman who isn’t going to take crap off of an old biased male fossil” card.
Judge Engoron and Joe Biden should get together and do a “50 First Dates” Movies marathon where they watch it on a loop for the next 10 years.
steveg (3fbfdf) — 11/7/2023 @ 3:04 pmI thought we weren’t supposed to objectify lawyers
steveg (3fbfdf) — 11/7/2023 @ 5:14 pmDon’t let Bill Clinton see that.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 11/7/2023 @ 5:17 pmI’m still wondering what happens if President-elect Donald Trump is sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 11/7/2023 @ 5:18 pmMy best hope would be that the VP-Elect is inaugurated. Of course that might be Vivek, or worse, playing X into the center square.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 11/7/2023 @ 5:20 pmNothing on election? Abortion rights must be winning!
asset (40ba39) — 11/7/2023 @ 5:31 pmPosted here.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/7/2023 @ 5:40 pmJudge Engoron and Joe Biden should get together and do a “50 First Dates” Movies marathon where they watch it on a loop for the next 10 years.
The beauty of that is that it would seem brand new to them each and every time they watch it.
JVW (76b335) — 11/7/2023 @ 5:49 pmAbortion wins in Ohio! Pro choice gov. wins in KY. Pro choice legislature wins in VA.! Younkin given post natal political abortion by voters. I Keep saying Abortion is the issue both in 2022 mid terms and now you keep saying its no big voting issue. Guess who has been proven wrong!
asset (7344cb) — 11/7/2023 @ 7:17 pmSo you’re telling me the self-proclaimed billionaire who picks only the best and the brightest found Ms. Hubba-Hubba’s resume and CV the most outstanding one out there? Nah, of course not. But he certainly seemed (pre-trial) smitten with her.
And I’m not being catty but clearly any attorney who agrees to represent Trump simply isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer
Dana (932d71) — 11/7/2023 @ 8:18 pmSo you’re telling me the self-proclaimed billionaire who picks only the best and the brightest found Ms. Hubba-Hubba’s resume and CV the most outstanding one out there? Nah, of course not.
Don’t discount the possibility that she might have been the only practicing lawyer who would be willing to represent him, Dana. Doesn’t he have a reputation for not paying his bills? Perhaps she accepted a membership to Mar a Lago in lieu of an actual check for her billable time.
JVW (1ad43e) — 11/7/2023 @ 8:26 pmI think that being the sharpest knife in the drawer depends on the drawer. I’ve been blessed to be around a lot of very smart people in my life and some of the sharpest knives were not good outside their little kitchen. Others were the sharpest anywhere they found themselves. I could see a scenario where a very very smart person takes Trump on as a client for the challenge
steveg (3fbfdf) — 11/7/2023 @ 8:31 pmI could see a scenario where a very very smart person takes Trump on as a client for the challenge.
Or the notoriety. For a woman who runs her own boutique law firm, it sure is great publicity.
JVW (1ad43e) — 11/7/2023 @ 8:40 pmRight. It is great publicity. Even better if you win
steveg (3fbfdf) — 11/7/2023 @ 8:49 pmDon’t discount the possibility that she might have been the only practicing lawyer who would be willing to represent him, Dana.
That only further proves my point. A sharp lawyer who knows anything about Trump would choose not to represent him. Perhaps that Mar-a-Lago membership is worth it to her …
Dana (932d71) — 11/7/2023 @ 8:50 pm@37 All publicity is good publicity. She is getting millions in free publicity and some clients might think she is cute. Unless she gets disbarred its a win/win for her.
asset (7344cb) — 11/7/2023 @ 10:44 pmLawyers at Alina Habba’s level neither need nor want publicity. Just the opposite. They want only professional referrals, from trusted sources, which will not waste their time or put them in professional difficulties.
I, personally, did not even have a one-line Yellow Pages listing. All my work was by referral.
Publicity is for ambulance chasers who advertise on benches and the sides of buses.
nk (6c45b4) — 11/8/2023 @ 5:46 amAs to why she would represent Trump, I am pretty sure that she relied on her judgment of the professional relationship she would establish with him. Doonesbury caricatures notwithstanding.
nk (33ca2b) — 11/8/2023 @ 6:10 amRight. It is great publicity. Even better if you win
No one expects her to win.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 11/8/2023 @ 6:42 amPublicity is for ambulance chasers who advertise on benches and the sides of buses.
This is an example of top-down bottom-feeding.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 11/8/2023 @ 6:44 amTrump to be interviewed ive at 2:05 pm Eastern Standard Time on the Budd Sexton and Clay Travis radio show (successor show to Rush Limbaugh)
Sammy Finkelman (1430e2) — 11/8/2023 @ 10:24 amIf she starts whining about non payment of fees at some point, then I’ll try to be nice, but still will need to concede she is teaspoon in the drawer of dull knives
steveg (ebb759) — 11/8/2023 @ 10:38 amClay Travis will be quite salty since he wanted an SEC Football footprint clear of Dem governors.
Also, did Maggie Haberman sneak into the court complex as Ivanka’s bailiff?
urbanleftbehind (99261a) — 11/8/2023 @ 11:05 am