A third Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, has appeared before a federal grand jury to answer questions in the Justice Department’s investigation led by Special Counsel Jack Smith into Trump’s handling of classified documents from his administration.
Although Habba has been involved in Trump’s legal representation for matters including scrutiny from the New York attorney general of his business and litigation from writer E. Jean Carroll over an incident of sexual assault she says Trump perpetrated against her in the 1990s, she hasn’t handled much of the legal work here. Habba did say, however, that she looked through certain areas at Trump’s southern Florida resort Mar-a-Lago for potentially relevant materials in the New York investigation as Attorney General Letitia James sought documents, suggesting she could have seen some of the dozens and dozens of classified files subsequently recovered from the former president by FBI agents. CNN also noted that Habba has spoken in interviews about the documents case, indicating she may have insight into the Trump team’s general approach to the substance of the dispute.
Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran, lawyers to Trump who have more directly handled the documents case, have also provided grand jury testimony. All three did so last month. Elsewhere in his investigations, Smith is also pursuing the cooperation of former Vice President Mike Pence, who recently received a subpoena, although reports subsequently outlined claimed intentions on the ex-VP’s part to resist those demands. The reporting cited the idea that Constitutional protections for members of Congress covering their official work should protect Pence because of the responsibilities he took on for the Congressional proceedings where members of Congress were set to certify the outcome of the election. This idea is apparently without legal precedent, specifically in terms of court rulings, which could set up an extended dispute between Pence and investigators. He could provide details about the pressure he faced but resisted to take some kind of procedural action meant to block Biden’s electoral votes in Congress.
Meanwhile, Habba and Trump recently faced another loss with the decision by a New York appeals court to uphold penalties Judge Arthur Engoron imposed for a lack of sufficient compliance with demands from James for certain evidentiary materials. At issue was a lack of required detail for the searches Trump’s team ostensibly completed for documents that responded to her demands, which originated with a 2021 subpoena.
