This is Bloomberg Law with June Brusso from Bloomberg Radio. Well, she's a very good person. You have many lawyers, I have any lawyers, uh, and I've had many lawyers. But she's said somebody that I think it's done a very very good job. One couplic cases, and we have numerous cases that never happened. You know, I'm always a target, unfortunately and very sadly as it's very it's a very
unfair situation. Former President Donald Trump is singing the praises of the attorney who's using an aggressive legal strategy to counter attack in some of his highest priority legal fights. Bloomberg Legal reporter Eric Larson profiled Trump's new lawyer, Elena Habba, and spoke to the former president to get his take on her. Eric start by telling us a little about Elena Habba. So, Elena Habba is a thirty eight year old lawyer from New Jersey. She founded a small law
firm that now has five lawyers total. She is a member of Donald Trump's Bedminster golf Club. She's fairly well to do. She's originally from New Jersey, and she told me that she wanted to help Trump out because she is a true believer in his legal causes. She's not a high profile name. Why did Trump go with her? I had heard from her and separately from Trump, that other members that the Bedminster Golf Club had told Trump
about her legal work for them. So she had represented other members at the club, done some legal work here and there, and they liked I guess the results, and they knew that Trump is always in need of legal help. So she was recommended and it basically he had someone at the club reach out her, get her business card. Then several interviews followed with him in person and then also with the Trump organization legal team. In general. She
has an aggressive legal strategy, which Trump likes. Yeah, you know, she's been very aggressive in court. You know, Trump says this was his idea to get more aggressive, and I think that in Elena Habba he found someone willing to carry out this aggressive strategy. So it started out with your call that Trump had two lawsuits against him by different women Ee Gene Carroll, New York advice columnist and
a former Apprentice contestant Summer Reservos. They both claimed that they were sexually assaulted by him and that he defamed them by denying it. So those cases had been going on for a while, and Elena Habba took over his defense and basically threatened counterclaims against them under the anti slap laws. And you know, alleging bad faith lawsuits had
been filed against Trump sum Reservos. The apprentice contestant dropped her lawsuit after that, and in the case of Eging Carroll, a judge ruled that the claim was coming too late. But Trump was real happy about that Zervos case going away. He congratulated her on that. He printed out a news article and signed it, and she has a framed copy of that hanging on her wall. So at any rate, he gave her some more matters to handle, and then
she went on the offense against his other courtroom foes. Right, She's filed some lawsuits that seemed designed to get headlines and also looked like they could be easily dismissed. I mean, certainly, I spoke with legal experts at the time that these lawsuits were filed who said that they seemed pretty weak, that they were frivolous perhaps, So yeah, we'll see what happens.
These are three separate lawsuits, one filed against the new York Attorney General Leticia James, claiming that her investigation into Trump's company is politically motivated in bogus and seeking an injunction to force the investigation to end. The other was filed more recently against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and several others, alleging a big conspiracy to undermine Trump while he was in office in regards to the Russia investigation
and things like that. And then another lawsuit filed against his estranged niece Mary Trump and The New York Times, seeking a hundred million dollars in damages for her acting as a source for the newspapers award winning article about his finances. Our track record on Trump cases hasn't been all wins, No, definitely, not so far. We've seen a
few big setbacks. She had tried to fight against subpoenas that were issued by the New York Attorney General to prevent Trump and two of his children, Don Junior and Ivanka from having to testify under oath. They really wanted to avoid that, and she argued really hard against it,
but a judge upheld those subpoenas back in February. She's appealing that, but she lost on that and in regards to the subpoena for Trump's records that was also upheld, and Trump agreed to abide by it with Alena Habba's help, but instead he didn't follow through, and she basically went to the court on the day that the documents were due and said, actually, we object to this subpoena. The judge was not happy. He held Donald Trump in contempt of court and find him ten thousand dollars a day,
which was just lifted the other day. Provisionally, they're trying to get him out of contempt, but he owes the court a hundred and ten thousand dollars now. And frankly, this is a result of the way that Elina Habba handled it. They both fought the judge for this, by the way, and Trump does not think that miss Habba did anything wrong in her representation. Drop in the bucket for Trump. Let's listen to what Trump told you about
that ruling. It's just a very unfinished situation. But I think she's done a very good job and she'll continue to do. A story in The Daily Beast in March described other members of Trump's legal team complaining about hob and mocking her. Yes and that was one of probably several pieces in the legal news world that had some negative things to say about miss hobb And, and frankly, that's part of the reason I wanted to write this profile.
I got a chance to email with her in covering these cases and then finally met her in person in court during that contempt hearing, and you know, regardless of the cases and how strongly are I felt like she deserved a little bit more of a fair shake in terms of making her a little more three dimensional and and showing what she she's like because some of those pieces I'm not going to call anyone out specifically, but she said that made her feel like she was being
portrayed as having no experience, some podunk lawyer in New Jersey who had some personal connection to Trump and got this work. She says that that's just not true, and I said, fine, you know, I want to learn more about you. So that's what the pieces about. Final question, Trump is known for stiffing some of his lawyers. Is she being paid? I did ask her that and she said yes, she said that she is being paid, and
and I believe her so great profile. Thanks so much, Eric, That's Bloomberg legal reporter Eric Larson coming up next on the Bloomberg Law Show, How to Spot Dishonest Lawyers. They're probably playing a game. I'm June Grosso and you're listening to Bloomberg