No, Alina Habba didn't accuse judge of taking $10M bribe to 'convict' Trump | Fact check
The claim: Alina Habba said Judge Arthur Engoron took $10 million bribe to convict Trump
A March 21 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows side-by-side images of an attorney representing former president Donald Trump and a New York judge who presided over one of his trials.
“Awake yet? Donald Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, just exposed Judge Arthur Engoron on her Telegram!” the text in the post reads. “He took a $10,000,000 bribe from Joe Biden’s shell companies to convict Donald Trump!”
It received more than 1,000 likes in a day. A similar version was shared thousands of times on X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
No part of this post is right. Habba has not accused Engoron of taking a bribe and does not even have a Telegram account, her spokesperson said. Engoron did not “convict” Trump of anything because the fraud trial was civil, not criminal.
Bribery allegations not among Habba’s criticisms of Engoron
Engoron ruled in February that Trump, his company and his co-defendants obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in loan and insurance benefits by fraudulently inflating the value of his assets. Trump is appealing the ruling and faces a March 25 deadline to pay $454 million or secure a bond for the judgment. If he doesn’t, State Attorney General Letitia James could take steps toward seizing his assets.
While Habba has been sharply critical of Engoron and his decision, the claim in the Instagram post is false, her spokesperson said. Habba has not accused the judge of accepting bribes and does not even have an account on the social media platform in question, spokesperson Erica Knight told USA TODAY.
Fact check: Alina Habba did argue with a judge, but she didn't forget to check off 'jury' box
Habba has spoken about Engoron and the trial during multiple appearances in the media, and she has regularly shared posts on her verified social media accounts. But at no point has she leveled an accusation that he took a bribe, Knight said.
The Instagram post also wrongly asserts that Engoron convicted Trump. Civil trials, like those lost by Trump in New York, result in monetary damages or court orders – but not convictions, which refer to someone being declared guilty of a criminal offense.
The claim echoes a false assertion previously debunked by USA TODAY that Habba accused the judge in a different Trump trial – the civil defamation lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll – of taking a $5 million bribe.
The Instagram user who shared the post could not be reached.
Our fact-check sources:
Erica Knight, March 21-22, Email exchange with USA TODAY
FindLaw, Aug. 17, 2023, The Differences Between a Criminal Case and a Civil Case
Cornell Law School, June 2021, Conviction
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump lawyer didn't accuse Judge Engoron of taking bribe | Fact check