'I'm not in a deposition': Sanctioned Trump attorney dodges CNN's questions about classified documents
Alina Habba, a former member of ex-President Donald Trump's legal team in the Mar-a-Lago documents scandal, refused to answer CNN anchor Don Lemon's questions about what she saw at Trump's Palm Beach, Florida estate while searching for the materials that were requested by the United States Department of Justice and National Archives.
"Well, I mean, but you looked at the office in the residence and you did not see any documents?" Lemon asked.
"No. I wasn't looking for classified documents. No. And I think you could read my affidavit. It's public record. No, I was looking for tax documents on another garbage case by Letitia James," Habba said, referring to New York's Democratic state attorney general and her massive $250 million fraud case against the Trump Organization.
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"Okay. So in response to a request for a separate legal matter, the Attorney General Letitia James that you just brought up, you swore that on May 5th, 2022 that you diligently 'search respondent's personal office' – meaning Donald Trump's – 'located at Mar-a-Lago, including all drawers, file cabinets, et cetera.' Six days later, the DOJ would subpoena Trump for classified documents. If you did a diligent search, Alina, wouldn't you have seen the trove of classified documents that were eventually found there?" Lemon pressed Habba again.
"Um, no," Habba replied, "because if you look at the scope of what I did and what I was looking for, it was not classified documents and it had nothing to do with this case. I was looking for tax documents."
Lemon was skeptical.
"Okay, so even if they were there, you don't think that you would've recognized them? Is that what you're saying?" he wondered.
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At that point, Habba accused state prosecutors of corruption, demanding that they be forced to testify before Congress before shutting down the discussion.
"I don't know, but I know that I'm not in a deposition right now and I'm not gonna continue with this conversation," Habba said. "But if you'd like to talk about what's currently happening, such as our corrupt system with AGs and our corrupt system with DAs and how they should all be brought in front of Congress and answer questions, happy to talk about that."
Watch below or at this link.
\u201cTrump attorney Alina Habba is pressed on whether she saw any classified documents during her \u201cdiligent search\u201d of Mar-a-Lago for tax documents, and she responds: \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I\u2019m not in a deposition right now, and I\u2019m not going to continue with this conversation.\u201d\u201d— Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Ron Filipkowski \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1680536498
