Fox Host Pressures Alina Habba Into Violating Gag Order

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo tried to get Trump lawyer Alina Habba to violate the gag order against her during an interview, by prodding Habba to tell the audience why she thinks both the judge and the clerk are biased against Donald Trump. Surprisingly, Habba didn't take the bait, which actually shows a level of self-control that Habba has not exhibited in the past. Could Habba be maturing, or was this whole thing staged to make Habba look like a victim? Farron Cousins attempts to answer that question.

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On Sunday, Alina Haba, one of Donald Trump's stellar members of his legal team in the New York Fraud Trial appeared on Fox News to talk with host Maria Bart Romo. And after Alina Haba reminded Bart Romo that she is under a gag order in that New York fraud trial. Bart Romo then proceeded to try to, I guess, goad Alina Haba into violating the gag order. Here's how the conversation took place. Alina Haba told Bar Romo, we have a gag order currently against certain issues that we can't speak to. Few moments later after Haba iss like, Hey, there's things I can't talk about. Barta Romo asked Haba, you've been complaining about the judge's clerk, and you say that the judge is compromised and the clerk appears compromised. Tell me why.

So Barta Romo was just told like, Hey, um, there's certain things we can't talk about. And Bar Romo being in the media, I have to assume knows specifically that Trump and his lawyers got in trouble for talking about the clerk in the courtroom and they're not allowed to do it. And bar Romo's like, can you tell me why this person's so messed up? Like, what's so bad about him? So she's basically saying like, Hey, I know you just told me you have this gag order, but would you mind violating that gag order right here on Fox News? Now, this would usually be the point. Ry would then tell you how Alina Haba then went on to violate the gag order. But much to my surprise, Haba didn't do it. Maybe she's not the dumbest lawyer in America. Maybe I'm wrong about that, because Haba responded, quote.

I actually can't tell you why, because I'm gagged. I can tell you that, you know, we'll be filing papers, uh, uh, uh, to address all of those issues papers. You, you don't file papers with the court. You file motions, Alina. So maybe you're already back to being the dumbest lawyer in the country. Um, so here's what happened. Either Alina Haba had a very brief moment where she remembered like, oh, wait, I have to be professional in this case. I can't just go out and be an idiot talking head like I'd like to be. So I will be restrained and I will just inform Maria Bar Romo once again that I'm under a gag order and I cannot talk about this issue. Either that's what happened, or far more likely this whole thing was staged. You know, I wanna give Alina Hobbit credit, but I don't know if I can. I really don't. Because here's the fun thing. Now, granted, it's been over a decade since I have seen how any shows on Fox News were produced, but shy of the people who've actually worked at Fox News.

I have been involved, you know, through my, uh, employment with Mike Papantonio, who used to go on Fox News multiple times a week. I can tell you, at least from back then, and I'm assuming not much has changed. I don't know for a fact, but I'm assuming if they're still operating the way they did way back in the day. These Fox News shows folks are very tightly scripted and yes, scripted. They have very strict rules. A lot of the shows would say, you have to send us your talking points before you can come on the air, or we'll send you the list of questions we're going to ask you. So I'm sorry, but based on the knowledge I have of how Fox News at least used to operate, you know, 10 years ago and you know, for the 10 years prior to that as well, I don't think this happened outta the blue.

I think Maria Barter Romo set it up to where Haba could play the victim. I think it was discussed beforehand, and again, that's based on my knowledge of how Fox News shows have worked in the past. So I'm willing to bet that Maria Bart Romo probably talked to Haba prior to the segment. It said, listen, here's what we want to do. And if it wasn't part of Romo, maybe it was a producer, I don't think this was just a turn of the switch. Ha, we're gonna try to get Haba to talk about this. I don't think that's how that happened. I think they wanted Haba to be able to claim that she is the victim by reminding people of their gag order, by pretending like, oh, man, I really wanna talk about this issue.