Donald Trump spokeswoman and his former lawyer, Alina Habba, claimed that Judge Juan Merchan was forced to cover his mouth to hide his glee over the conviction of the ex-president — but others in the courtroom are calling the comment untrue.
Habba claimed on Fox News that Merchan covered his face and was "probably" smiling after hearing the jury's decision.
Speaking to MSNBC on Friday, legal analyst Lisa Rubin said that isn't what she saw at all.
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Reenacting the moment, she explained, "It was after the verdict was read after the individual jurors had been polled. Judge Merchan put his head down and sort of covered his mouth like this."
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She leaned on her hand and tilted to the side.
"And my read of that moment was not that Juan Merchan was trying to cover a smirk or a smile but that he was taking in the gravity of the moment before him," explained Rubin. "That he had just presided over a five-week trial in which a former president was convicted of a felony for the first time in our nation's history."
She believed that Merchan was "collecting his thoughts" and "taking a breath."
In fact, Rubin said that Merchan was, "Almost sighing, understanding what still remained before him and then moving on from there to thank the jurors."
Merchan wasn't filled with glee as Habba claimed, Rubin said.
"I saw a man deeply impacted by the gravity of the moment, not somebody who was mocking what had happened to the defendant before him," Rubin continued.
New York Times reporter Susanne Craig agreed with the assessment. She, too, has been in the courthouse each day, watching the trial unfold.
"I would think it was just out of character for what we saw with the judge in terms of he's not betrayed a lot of emotion," Craig agreed. "That didn't strike me as believable.
"But just it's interesting because we were there every day and sometimes you get really bogged down in the minutia, and we're all doing like minute-by-minute, play-by-plays on the trial. And it really does feel the moment now. It's monumental."
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Alina Habba busted over new lies about Judge Merchan youtu.be
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