For an officer of the court, wouldn't that normally be cause for disbarment?
The case is one brought by Alice Bianco, a former waitress at Trump's New Jersey Bedminster golf club.
Surprisingly, it wasn't Trump who was harassing Bianco. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a manager at a Trump business.Bianco’s lawsuit against Bedminster [...] opens up Habba to a possible ethics investigation that could put her professional credentials at risk. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Joseph L. Rea, who oversaw the club lawsuit, hinted at a possible subsequent investigation in handwritten notes he scribbled at the bottom of a court order last December.
Citing the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct, Rea promised to “take appropriate action” with Habba “if this court receives reliable information indicating a substantial likelihood that a lawyer has committed a violation of the rules of professional conduct … that raises a substantial question as to the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer.”
[...]
Habba’s professional ethics were called into question last year when [Bianco] sued the golf club for having allegedly “defrauded” her into accepting $15,000 on the condition that she keep quiet about sexual harassment allegations.
[...]
In March, the club agreed to void the hush money deal in a settlement agreement, let [Bianco] keep the cash and [to] pay her lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, $82,500 in fees. But the club cut Habba out of that settlement, leaving her wide open to getting personally sued for her role in the ordeal.
Habba and Bianco attended mediation and later agreed to settle the matter out of court.
Notus
Hmmmmm. Seems like she already had.[Originally,] Bianco hired an employment lawyer to consider her options and discussed the [harassment] matter with coworkers. Then, she was approached by Habba, who portrayed herself as a concerned friend willing to give legal advice. At the time, Bianco only knew Habba as a member of the social club who loved to grab the microphone on party nights and belt out songs in the dining hall.
[...]
Habba ultimately convinced Bianco to ditch the lawyer and go with her instead — then advised the waitress to sign a hush money deal that would keep the club out of news headlines and leave Bianco with a paltry sum, per text messages cited in the lawsuit. When Bianco later discovered she owed taxes on the $15,000 she had received, Habba gave her the cold shoulder.
“I can’t technically give u legal advice,” Habba texted back, in a message attached to the lawsuit. “That’s the problem.”
And how Habba's still there is a testament to Trump not giving a rat's ass if his represenatives are either capable or legit, as long as his freedom isn't on the line.[Bianco and a new attorney] pieced together a timeline that they believe shows how Habba silenced Bianco to cozy up to Trump.
Habba also represented Trump when he sued The New York Times and three investigative reporters over a Pulitzer Prize-winning story in 2018 about his family’s tax practices — a lawsuit that remains active against the former president’s niece, Mary Trump, but resulted in him having to pay the newspaper $392,639 in attorney’s fees. Habba also represented Trump in his shotgun pleading against former rival Hillary Clinton, which was tossed out by a federal judge who called out Trump’s “pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes” and found Trump and Habba jointly and severally liable for $937,989.
Habba has since elevated her prominence in the Trump 2024 campaign, speaking at rallies and continuing to defend him on conservative news networks.
Nothing is logical (or ethical) in Trumpland.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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