Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Sued For Being Gross Racist Hell Boss

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Alina Habba (headshot from Habba Madaio LLP)

Congratulations to Trumpland lawyer Alina Habba, who just made herself a hero to the “why can’t white people say the N-word” squad.

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Habba, whose greatest hits include getting her clock cleaned by New York Attorney General Letitia James in both federal and state court, as well as a hilarious threat to sue the Pulitzer board if it refused to retract prizes for the New York Times and the Washington Post, just got sued by her former legal assistant for creating a hostile work environment at her New Jersey law office.

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“Defendants ALINA HABBA and MICHAEL MADAIO, seemed to particularly enjoy listening to, and rapping along with what is generally perceived and classified as gangster and hip-hop music, to energize, motivate and otherwise ‘pump themselves up’ prior to making court appearances,” alleges the complaint filed by Na’Syia Drayton in the Superior Court of Middlesex County New Jersey.

Drayton, who was the only African American employee in Habba’s shop, describes feeling uncomfortable with her boss regularly blasting and singing along with graphic lyrics, replete with the N-word and demeaning references to women and their anatomy. As one does in a law office, obvs.

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The suit, which was first reported by Jose Pagliery of the Daily Beast, also describes Habba making racially derogatory statements about NYAG James after getting walloped in yet another round before Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.

When Defendant ALINA HABBA learned that she lost her matter, and that the Judge rejected her legal argument, Defendant ALINA HABBA emerged irate from her office (where she and Defendant MICHAEL MADAIO were meeting) and shouted, “I HATE THAT BLACK BITCH!”

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The suit dates this comment to April, when Habba’s crafty gambit to answer the AG’s discovery demands with 16 pages of gobbledygook restating objections already rejected by the court failed to save her client Donald Trump from a judicial contempt ruling.

Drayton further claims that her boss told her to order fried chicken at a staff lunch because “you people like fried chicken.”

When Drayton did complain that Habba’s behavior was “inappropriate, offensive and racially insensitive,” Habba responded that it was impossible for her to be racist because “I am a fucking minority myself” and “I’m not White. I used to be bullied because I am Arab.” 

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Also, Habba has Black employees, and, uhhh …

Thereafter, Defendant ALINA HABBA characterized herself as a good person, and repeated the refrain that she could not possibility be racist because she “wasn’t White”. Then, Defendant ALINA HABBA informed Plaintiff NA’SYIA DRAYTON that she had spoken to her other Black employee, a personal chauffer (an African American man) and that he loved Kanye West and frequently played hip hop music for her when she was being chauffeured around by him.

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“Do you understand how I feel now?! I love hip hop – always have, always will… I’m taking serious offense to this, frankly. Very serious offense!” Habba told Drayton, making clear that it was Drayton’s job to make Habba feel comfortable, not the other way around. At which point Drayton quit and filed the instant discrimination suit.

So, another round well played by the attorney whom Trump’s other lawyers say is so “pointlessly aggressive, and sloppy” that her “mere presence on the team increases the likelihood of Trump and his family facing court losses and legal peril.”

Presumably she will prepare to respond with a rousing chorus of DMX’s Ruff Riders Anthem, sung at a high decibel in the common room of her office.

Lawsuit Claims Trump’s Lawyer Called AG ‘That Black B*tch’ [Daily Beast]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Topics

Alina Habba, Discrimination, Government, Small Law Firms