Former President Donald Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, spoke about her client’s arraignment in front of the Washington D.C. courthouse on Thursday.
Trump appeared in court to face his third indictment, which was issued by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Habba mentioned that these indictments coincided with the release of new information about Hunter Biden. As an example, she highlighted the testimony of Hunter’s former business associate, Devon Archer, before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, followed by Trump’s third indictment the next day.
“This is not a coincidence. This is election interference at its finest against the leading candidate right now for president for either party,” Habba said. “President Trump is under siege in a way that we have never seen before. President Trump and his legal team and everyone on his team will continue to fight, not for him, but for the American people.”
She said the indictment is a “witch hunt” which is beyond a political battle.
A reporter appeared to cite Smith’s accusation Trump intentionally lied about the 2020 presidential election results and acted upon those alleged lies. Habba said the former president had a right to point to concerns regarding the election’s flaws and asserted the former president truly believed the election had been fraudulent.
“So, what is it that he did to try and switch the votes that you refer to? By bringing cases, by using the law in an appropriate manner unlike what we’re seeing here today? This is not appropriate. What President Trump did, is he said, ‘go patriotically and peacefully protest.’ That is an American right. That is why we are America, and we are not a third world country, although today, I don’t feel very much like we are in America,” Habba said.
She said Smith “opened himself up to a can of worms” since he has to prove Trump intentionally lied.
Another reporter cited former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Stacey Abrams, a former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate, of questioning the results of the elections they lost. Habba said there are no consequences for election denial unless the person’s last name is Trump.
“But if your last name is Trump, it’s very different. So Hillary Clinton could have a problem when she lost the election, and we could have a complete liberal meltdown as we all saw. But when we have dignified disagreements, we take them to court, we say do things patriotically and peacefully,” Habba said.
“Frankly, folks, this is not about that. This is about politics, this is about 2024. Period, the end,” she concluded.
The third indictment handed down four charges against Trump: “Conspiracy to defraud the United States,” “Conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 proceedings” and “A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”
Trump pleaded not guilty on all charges at the hearing.
