A lawyer who represented Donald Trump in his sprawling civil fraud trial and a defamation case in which he was found liable for sexual abuse will be heading to the White House.
Alina Habba, a fierce loyalist who injected Trump’s courtrooms with campaign fury, will serve as counselor to the president in the incoming administration, joining a team of Trump’s personal criminal and civil defense lawyers in critical roles across the federal government.
“She has been unwavering in her loyalty and unmatched in her resolve — standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles and countless days in Court,” Trump wrote in a statement announcing her appointment December 8. “Few understand the Weaponization of the ‘Injustice’ System better than Alina.”
She has “fought relentlessly against the full force of Lawfare with courage and an unshakable commitment to Justice,” he added.
Within the last year, Habba’s losses in New York courtrooms have racked up nearly half a billion dollars in judgments against the president-elect. In January, he was ordered to pay E Jean Carroll more than $83 million after he was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming the former Elle magazine writer. One month later, Trump was ordered to pay more than $350 million for more than a decade of business fraud.
Habba herself was repeatedly reprimanded for his behavior and mistakes in court, and was the subject of a blistering federal court judgment last year that ordered nearly $1 million in sanctions against her and Trump, who was labeled a “mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process.”
She also drew complaints from Trump’s own team, who have reportedly criticized her aggressive, dramatic courtroom behavior in cases where the fates of Trump’s family business and his winnowing pile of cash to cover his extensive legal costs could be in jeopardy.
But Habba emerged as a powerful spokesperson on the president-elect’s behalf, infusing her courthouse rhetoric with the same disdain for what she and Trump view as a politically motivated judicial system in her media appearances and on the campaign trail. She joined Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in the days leading up to Election Day, dancing her way to the stage as DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” blasted into the arena.
In her upcoming role, Habba will oversee what are likely to be critical questions about his conflicts of interests and ethical obligations, including his financial disclosures, while battling the litigation against him.
Kellyanne Conway served in a similar role as senior counsel to the president during Trump’s first term in office, when Michael Cohen served in a self-appointed role as “personal attorney to the president.”
Honor of my life to serve the 45th and 47th President and the American people. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Wtig7tdPsQ
— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) December 9, 2024
The 40-year-old attorney was born in New Jersey to Iraqi Chaldean parents who fled to the United States in the early 1980s under threat of religious persecution.
As a member of the Chaldean Catholic community, Habba has described herself as “a devout Catholic, a proud first-generation Arab American woman and a feisty Jersey girl.”
She has three children and has been married to her second husband Gregg Reuben, the owner of a New York-based parking management company, since 2020.
Habba was married to lawyer Matthew Eyet of New Jersey-based Eyet Law from 2011 to 2019.
She earned her bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 2010 after graduating from Widener University Delaware Law School.
Habab first met the president-elect at his Bedminster golf club, where she is also a member.
Trump first hired Habba’s small New Jersey-based firm Habba Madaio & Associate in 2021 to sue his niece Mary Trump and The New York Times for $100 million for publishing information about his tax returns. That case was ultimately dismissed, and Trump was ordered to pay $400,000 in legal fees.
Habba also represented Trump in a defamation case brought by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, who accused the former president of sexual assault. Zervos later dropped the case.
In 2022, Habba was among a team of Trump lawyers who were hit with $50,000 each for bringing a spurious lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, among others, after a federal judge in Florida accused his attorneys of abusing the legal system as a political sideshow.
“The courts are not intended for performative litigation for purposes of fund-raising and political statements,” District Judge Donald Middlebroks wrote.
Trump also retained Habba’s office to block a civil investigation from the office of New York Attorney General into years-long allegations of fraud in his family’s real-estate empire.
A pretrial judgment from Manhattan Superior Court Justice Arthur Engoron determined that Trump and his Trump Organization co-defendants of making dozens of false and misleading valuations of his assets to banks and investors, who in turn gave them more favorable financing deals to enrich themselves and the family business.
In that case, Habba elicited testimony from Trump’s former attorney-turned-witness Michael Cohen, who said that Trump “speaks like a mob boss” and implicitly instructed his associates to fraudulently inflate his net worth and assets in financial documents.
Trump, who was under a gag order through the duration of the trial, violated the terms at least three times. State appellate court judges upheld the gag orders, and Habba ended up writing a check to the court for $15,000 to cover his fines.
In February, Trump lost that blockbuster civil trial, and Engoron ordered Trump to pay more than $350 million, plus interest, for so-called “ill-gotten gains” from his decade-long fraud scheme.
Today, the president-elect and his co-defendants — including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and top Trump Organization associates — owe nearly half a billion dollars, as interest continues to accrue as they appeal.
In the case of E Jean Carroll, a federal judge scolded Habba for failing “evidence 101” after trying to read out evidence that had not been introduced and repeatedly cut her off from lines of questioning that sought to undermine Carroll’s character, landing blows against Trump’s accuser that were meant for Trump more than the jury.
After a two-week trial, a jury awarded Carroll more than $83 million in damages for his defamatory statements about her.
“I’m disappointed in my legal talent, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said in the aftermath of that case.
In August, Habba quietly settled with a former Bedminster golf club waitress who accused Habba of tricking her into signing an illegal non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about allegations of sexual harassment against a supervisor.
That settlement marked the end of a nearly year-long civil lawsuit from Alice Bianco, who argued that the club “defrauded” her into accepting $15,000 on the condition that she not speak publicly about the allegations — a deal reportedly brokered by Habba.
Habba notably did not represent Trump during his criminal trial in Manhattan, instead acting as a spokesperson and adviser throughout the campaign, and appearing inside and outside the courtroom with other Trump allies to support him.
On May 30, a jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money scheme to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Trump’s two criminal defense attorneys in that case — Todd Blanche and Emil Bove – have been rewarded with nominations to key positions at the Department of Justice.
Trump attorney D. John Sauer, who represented Trump throughout his attempt to claim “immunity” from criminal prosecution for his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, was nominated to serve as the United State solicitor general.
Habba says her upcoming role in the president-elect’s administration is the “honor of my life.”
