Alina Habba, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, appeared last month before a federal grand jury investigating the mishandling of classified documents from his time in the White House, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.
Habba is the third Trump lawyer known to have been brought before the DC-based grand jury, which is investigating obstruction in addition to criminal violations of government records laws.
While Habba has not played the prominent role that other Trump attorneys have played in responding to the documents probe, which spilled out in public view with an August FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, she has made notable TV appearances defending Trump and criticizing the federal documents probe.
Habba also has been a lead attorney in litigation related to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil case against the Trump family and their business for alleged financial fraud. In that role, she personally searched several Trump properties – including Trump’s residence and private office at Mar-a-Lago – weeks before the FBI search.
She was tasked with recovering any Trump Organization documents that James was seeking but told a New York court she didn’t find any records covered by the subpoena from the attorney general.
Habba’s spokesperson declined to comment on her recent appearance in the federal documents probe.
Since Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has taken over the federal investigation, it has taken significant steps. Trump attorneys Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb recently appeared before the grand jury as well, CNN reported last week.
Corcoran was in contact with federal officials as the efforts to retrieve and scrutinize the documents in question ramped up last year. He also drafted a statement – ultimately signed by Bobb in June – asserting that Trump’s representatives had complied with a subpoena for documents marked as classified that remained at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
In the weeks after, the FBI came to believe that other classified documents were still at Mar-a-Lago and executed a search warrant in August.
CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
