Legal AF by MeidasTouch - SIDELINED Trump Lawyer Alina Habba INSTANTLY Caught in Lie

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Alina Habba lied to the American people to their faces when she told them that Trump was ready willing and able to testify in his NY criminal trial when she knew that no such thing would ever happen. Michael Popok of the “almost never wrong” Legal AF podcast explains that the defense rested and never called Trump—and for good reason. Go to http://mackweldon.com/?utm_source=streaming&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=podcastlaunch&utm_content=LEGALAFutm_term=LEGALAF and get 20% off your first order with promo code LEGALAF Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The prosecution has rested. And you know what that means. Donald Trump did not testify. Is that a shock to anybody besides Alina Jaba? I mean, Alina Jaba, his lawyer or whatever she is, is sent out on these missions to confuse and to lie to the American people about what's really happening in the courtroom. She's a shill for Donald Trump. That's all she is.

So the reality is, and I'll play you a clip from Alina Jaba, what I'm talking about. Well, Alina Jaba is out telling the world that he has every intention to testify. He wants to tell the truth. You know, right, because he's not gagged in the courtroom. He's not gagged from doing anything in the courtroom. If he wanted to waive his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, Donald Trump could testify, look that jury of 12 people in the eye and tell them whether, you know, seven men and five women in New York, in Manhattan,

whether he did it or not, if he's guilty or not. He doesn't have to. I want to balance this hot take with what he doesn't have to do, with what he threatens to do, what he tells his followers that he's going to do. That's the only reason I raise it. I'm not here to shift the burden. The prosecution in our system of justice has the burden beyond a reasonable doubt

to prove somebody's guilt. And everyone, including Donald Trump, has the right to be viewed as innocent until proven guilty. I agree with that. But then shut the you know what up about you're going to waive your Fifth Amendment privilege when you really had no intention of doing so. I mean, on Legal AF, at least Ben, Mycelis and me have been saying for the last

two months, and maybe that's because we're defense lawyers at heart, that there was no way that Donald Trump was going to be testifying. Even Karen Friedman-Eknipolo, our illustrious former prosecution partner, close friend, finally came around to agreeing a couple days ago, no way that Donald Trump was going to testify, especially given that in order to testify, the lawyers would have to put him on and suborn perjury, meaning they know he'd be perjuring himself. They're not allowed to do that. That's a crime itself.

They know he'd have to lie about having the affairs with Karen McDougall and with Stormy Daniels and with everybody else. And he couldn't really truthfully say he didn't have these affairs, even though he wanted to. Now you have the resting of the trial. Now this is not the first time that Donald Trump, right before the close of evidence in his case,

or any of his cases, says, I'd love to testify. I wanna testify, let me go testify. And then never does. And we know this game on Legal AF. We don't fall for it ever. Let's watch Alina Haber first, and I'll tell you what really happened, and I'll compare it to all the other places Donald Trump has lied about wanting to testify or actually testify. Let's play Alina Haber now. As far as where this all goes next, what would be in the thought process

to testify or not testify on the part of the former president? Well, he's got to listen to his attorneys. It's not as much what he wants to do. We know he wants to testify. He is willing. He is able. He is nothing to hide is able. He is nothing to hide at all. He's absolutely ready to tell the truth. Frankly, I think the truth is already spoken. He was in the White House while somebody in accounting booked a legal fee payment as a legal expense. It's pretty quick and it would be a pretty short testimony as far as the

questions that would need to be asked because he had no part in this. The reality of the situation is that we have this judge, we have this court, and we have a DA who has been politically motivated since the minute he decided to run for office. Remember, this was not brought twice, not by Sy Vance and not by Bragg. The only time he decided to bring this case was after President Trump announced that he would be running for reelection. So the real question is one that would be discussed within the legal team and of course we'll discuss with our clients. You know, he wants to tell the truth. That's all he wants to do. He's ready to testify. He was never ready to testify. They haven't been working on... I'm a trial lawyer. To get a Donald Trump to be able to testify, you have to spend weeks To get a Donald Trump to be able to testify, you have to spend weeks on a guy like that.

Weeks of preparation and practice and cross-examination practice. Do you think Donald Trump has the patience, the intellectual fortitude, the mental acuity to be prepared in a case like this? No way, he's the ultimate wild card. And so somewhere along the way, despite his threats, he figured out he gets better mileage out in front of the courthouse, behind the bicycle racks,

than he ever would taking an oath and swearing under, you know, on a stack of Bibles, that he's telling the truth. He did the exact same thing in the first E. Jean Carroll case, the one where he got declared a sexual predator, for lack of a better term, who under New York's law of rape, raped E. Jean Carroll, at least digitally, and punitive damages and defamation. He didn't testify in the jury. He said he would. He was in Scotland at some golf outing, some ribbon cutting for one of these Trump golf courses in Scotland somewhere, like from the sand trap or the bunker. He's, I'd love to, to the reporters. I'd love to. I want to go back. I'm going back to testify. I need to testify. And he never did. And then Judge Kaplan,

presiding over that case two years ago, said to the lawyer Joe Takapina for Donald Trump, I heard on the media that your client wants to come back and testify. You're telling me he doesn't want to testify or he's going to not testify in a civil case, which is it? And Takapina said, well, you know my client. You know who my client is. He said, I'm going to give him one more chance. We're going to close tomorrow in that case.

He shows up or he forfeits. He never showed up. E.G. Carroll, too. He said, I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. And then by the time he got up there, he testified for all of five minutes. And the jury came back and didn't just double the award for the first trial. They moved it from 5.5 million to 83 and a half million. Then in the New York attorney general case, he did testify. How'd that go? I'm gonna testify.

Good, swear in, all right. Judge found him a liar under oath and then hit him with a $465 million judgment. Sometimes I wish we could have things in life both ways, like a great glass of red wine but without the headache. Well, that's not going to happen in that example, but it is possible to have it both ways with Mack Weldon. I know men tend to think looking sharp means starchy oxfords and stiff chinos rather than

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They look like regular clothes, but feel like the latest in modern comfort. They're the go-to choice for guys who want to look great without even trying. Get timeless looks with modern comfort from Mack Weldon. Go to MackWeldon.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code LEGALAF. That's M-A-C-K-W-E-L-D-O-N.com promo code LegalAF. So Donald Trump testifying does not positively affect the outcome. It doesn't make things better for Donald Trump.

He didn't testify in the first E. Jean Carroll, $5 million, $5.5 million judgment. He does testify in the second one, $83.5 million judgment. He does testify in the second one, $83.5 million judgment. He testifies in the New York attorney general civil fraud case, $465 million later. That was not a successful testimony. And in here, where the prosecution is struggling a bit to prove a misdemeanor into a felony case about business record fraud and election interference or, or tax interference or whatever, whatever the theory is going to be when they do the closing in

a case like that, you know, he's not going to play with two sticks of dynamite and rub them together and hope it goes well in testimony. And so I don't know what, I don't know what Alina Haba is. I mean, we have a lot of recreational drugs now. We have a lot of edibles out there. I don't know what she's on when she goes on these shows, but she's not making any sense whatsoever. And she must know at the time that she says it to the American people that she's literally lying to their faces because they had no intention ever to have him testify. And he didn't. They rested. The case is over. It is now all that's left

The case is over. It is now all that's left is the shouting. All that's left is some motion practice by the Trump side. They'll move to for directed verdict to take it away from the jury and have the judge declare that the indictment was improper and the case hasn't been proven. That'll be denied. That'll take all of 10 minutes.

Then they'll make some other motions about some reversible error that they think occurred. This testimony or that testimony or something about Stormy Daniels denied. What else you got? He'll go down to the judge, Mershon will go down the checklist. They'll move to disqualified judge Mershon again,

denied, what else you got? And then they're gonna like, we gotta get to jury instructions. And then they're gonna have this fight about jury instructions, how the jury is gonna be instructed instructed primarily about the second crime, which is I think the election interference crime. Then what are the actual instructions?

Now, we have a body of law in New York that stretches back over 200 years. We have model jury instructions on many of these counts that the judge is not going to deviate from that comes from well-established precedent case law in New York at the court of appeals level, the highest court, and even the first department, which is the intermediary court in New York. So there's not going to be much fighting here because there's not going to be much they can say. They'll fight over, they'll quibble over, well, should we give this instruction about once a liar, always a liar, about Michael Cohen or this or that. They'll fight on the margins about this. But the instructions favor the prosecution because none of them go to whatever

his defense is. Who could figure out what their defense is if you're the jury? The defense was all done in cross-examination and not usually successfully, including one that blew up dramatically today when they were able to show that Michael Cohen told the truth when he said on a certain date, he had a phone call with both the bodyguard and Donald Trump to tell Donald Trump that the payoff to Stormy Daniels happened and was successful.

He proved it. Video evidence, video still evidence and a stipulation by the parties through Michael Cohen. Powerful stuff, especially to end the case with. The defense put on or just trying to put on some other witnesses, but they're going to rest. And then it's looking like closing arguments on Tuesday and maybe jury deliberation Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I think before the Memorial Day weekend, how appropriate. We're going to have a ruling in this case about whether Donald Trump is convicted. And if he's convicted of, I don't think they can split it up here.

There's 34 counts against Donald Trump. I think the light switch is on or off. He's either exonerated, found not guilty, or he's convicted of 34 felonies. We'll have to see. We'll have to see. We'll keep a close eye on it right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Now you know why we call it Legal AF. It's on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time of podcast. I do it on Wednesdays with a former prosecutor, Karen Friedman-Iknipolo, Saturdays with my co-founder, Ben Misalas. And then hot takes like this one, I don't know, about every hour,

every 20 minutes right here on the Midas Touch Network. If you like what I'm doing on Michael Popak, thumbs up, leave a comment, it really signals to the algorithmic gods that you wanna see more of this content. And then you can slide over and find all of my body of work under playlists, Midas Touch YouTube, Michael Popok contributor and or playlist and free subscribe to the Midas Touch Network right here. It's easy, just hit subscribe, you're done.

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