Bench-slapped Trump attorney Alina Habba 'acted more like a lawyer' when the former president wasn't in court, E. Jean Carroll lawyer says
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- E. Jean Carroll's lawyer said Donald Trump attorney Alina Habba acted more professional when Trump wasn't around.
- Habba "was much more disciplined" and "acted more like a lawyer," Carroll lawyer Shawn Crowley said.
- Habba's courtroom antics made headlines during the Carroll defamation trial against Trump.
Donald Trump's attorney Alina Habba — whose courtroom antics in the second E. Jean Carroll defamation trial made headlines — "acted more like a lawyer" when the former president wasn't around and buzzing in her ear, Carroll's attorney said.
"You could definitely see a difference between her sort of style when he was in the courtroom and when he was not there," Shawn Crowley, one of Carroll's lawyers, said Monday during an interview on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show."
Crowley said that Habba "was much more disciplined and, frankly, acted more like a lawyer" when Trump was not in the Manhattan federal courtroom during the week-and-a-half-long trial that ended in a jury ordering Trump to pay a whopping $83.3 million to Carroll for defaming her.
When Trump was in court, Crowley said, "You could hear him telling" Habba "when to object and muttering things and loudly being frustrated with her."
"I think she felt like she had to say things to the judge and to us and sort of put on a performance," said Crowley, who admitted, "I think that she had a hard job."
In the same interview, Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan said Habba regularly "yelled" at US District Judge Lewis Kaplan during the trial.
"It was unbelievably nerve-racking each time it happened, and it happens multiple times every day," Roberta Kaplan said.
Habba did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider on Tuesday.
Throughout the civil trial, Habba repeatedly frustrated the judge. In a single day, the judge bench-slapped Habba at least 14 times over basic law and on Friday even threatened to send her to jail for interrupting.
Trump also acted out during the trial and the judge had threatened to boot him from the courtroom after he was heard disparaging Carroll while she was testifying. On Friday, Trump abruptly stormed out of the courtroom as Roberta Kaplan argued in her closing statements that Trump didn't respect the jury.
Carroll, a longtime writer, said during the MSNBC interview that she was "terrified" to face Trump, but when she saw him in court she quickly realized "he was nothing."
"He was a phantom. It was the people around him who were giving him power. He himself was nothing," Carroll said, adding, "It was an astonishing discovery for me. He's nothing. We don't need to be afraid of him."
Last year, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a New York City department store in the 1990s and that he defamed her by denying it. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
This latest trial was over a lawsuit filed in 2019 regarding two statements Trump made denying Carroll's allegations.