Alina Habba, a longtime lawyer for former President Donald Trump, argued that jurors in Trump’s criminal hush money trial should have been sequestered to prevent influence from family and friends over the holiday weekend.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday following the long Memorial Day weekend holiday, after which jurors will decide their verdict on Trump’s 34 charges of falsifying business records against the former president. Habba said she believed the jury should have been sequestered, or isolated from outside influences, such as the news or other influences, over the weekend.
“These are not sequestered jurors,” Habba said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They should have been sequestered because, in my opinion, these jurors are handling something that is completely unprecedented and unwarranted in America. And for them to be able to be out and about on a holiday weekend, with friends and families who have opinions, who are watching the news — TV’s on in the background at the pool party — I have serious concerns.”
Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the case, told jurors to try and avoid the news in regards to the trial over the weekend. Still, Habba was wary that jurors could be influenced.
“If they’re left-leaning, then they’re watching ‘MS DNC’ as my client calls it, or CNN, they’re not going to get fair news,” Habba said, referring to MSNBC.
She expressed additional worry about what jurors may overhear over the long weekend.
‘I have worries about them going back to whatever friends might have ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ forgetting all sense of reality and coming back and sitting in that box and saying, you know what, I’ve got to do, you know, take one for the DNC,” Habba said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
She remained firm in her desire for Trump to be acquitted of the charges.
‘I want law-to-fact, because if we can get that, we will win. We will not just get a hung jury. We will get an acquittal,” Habba said.
