Alina Habba, one of the attorneys representing former President Donald Trump in his federal criminal case as well as several civil cases, told Breitbart News on Friday morning that she planned to “depose people” his upcoming trial.
Habba appeared on Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM Patriot 125 with Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow.
“We also need a fair opportunity to depose people and see what their answers are to some of the things we have questions about.”
Pre-trial depositions are typically more limited in criminal trials, and are usually granted by a judge only in circumstances where a witness is unlikely to be available to testify in court during the trial itself. However, Habba said she wanted more information about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, among other topics that may relate to constitutional issues that the defense is expected to raise in challenging the prosecution’s case.
Habba also promised to obtain the audio recording of the discussion with a journalist that was referred to in Smith’s indictment, during which Trump appeared to refer to a sensitive document. “There will be an explanation for everything, I assure you of that.”
She praised Trump for using the legal system to defend himself and to defend the constitutional prerogatives of the presidency, saying that he spent a lot of time studying and reading about the law about his cases.
She added that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s claim that Trump had directed that documents with sensitive information be packed and transported out of the White House, among many boxes filled with other documents, was ridiculous. “By no means was Donald Trump filling up a U-Haul, trying to scurry away [with] documents. I mean, it’s ridiculous. It’s a complete ridiculous theory, and it’s a ridiculous indictment,” she said.
She referred to Special Counsel Smith as a “Democrat activist,” saying that it would be equally unfair for her to prosecute Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, due to her own political allegiances.
Habba told Marlow that she became acquainted with Trump after being a member of one of his clubs, and then became his lawyer. Asked about the potential difficulty of being Trump’s lawyer, especially when left-wing groups attempt to disbar many of the attorneys who represent the former president, Habba said she was prepared to take the abuse: “I don’t mind being a punching bag… because what we’re doing is so important.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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