Former President Donald Trump’s team pushed back Tuesday on claims from multiple media outlets that Trump’s legal team forgot to check a box to request a jury trial in New York, saying the state attorney general filed the case under a statute that does not offer the option of a jury trial.
Multiple outlets, reporters and left-leaning legal analysts repeatedly claimed that Trump lawyer Alina Habba forgot to check a box, thereby robbing her boss of the opportunity to present his case to a jury. In a statement to the Daily Caller, a Trump spokesperson rejected that narrative.
“The Attorney General filed this case under a consumer protection statute that denies the right to a jury. There was never an option to choose a jury trial. It is unfortunate that a jury won’t be able to hear how absurd the merits of this case are and conclude no wrongdoing ever happened,” the Trump spokesperson told the Caller.
Key piece of context:
Justice Engoron just noted in court that “nobody asked for” a jury trial, which is why he’ll be presiding over Trump’s $250M civil fraud case without one.
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) October 2, 2023
Habba has also argued that checking the box would not have given Trump a jury trial. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Rips RNC, Says They Have To Stop Debates)
“I have to address this one common misconception in the press, and unfortunately it just keeps getting repeated, which is that we had this great option to have a box checked for a jury. No, we didn’t have that. That’s not how this works. They brought it under Section 63(12), which is a very narrow, not appropriately used section of the law, which is for consumer protection,” Habba said in a Monday interview on Newsmax. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Reacts To Judge Ruling On Property Value, Says Mar-A-Lago Is Worth Around $1.8 Billion)
Before the trial, Trump told the Caller he has not defrauded anyone and that the banks have no grievance against him.
“The banks are happy. The banks got paid fully. They had the best lawyers in the country. They got all their money. They got all their interest. The banks have stated that they are thrilled. They got paid. They don’t even know why they are being involved in this thing,” Trump said in an exclusive one-on-one sit down interview.
“I built a great company and I have a disclaimer clause in the agreement. He says that Mar-a-Lago is worth 18 million dollars when it is worth probably 100 times that, 1.8 billion dollars and there are others in there too,” he continued.