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stated on March 19, 2024 in a TikTok video:

Alina Habba said New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron took a “$10 million bribe from Joe Biden’s shell companies to convict Donald Trump.”

Former President Donald Trump, with lawyers Christopher Kise and Alina Habba, attends the closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York, Jan. 11, 2024. (AP)

By Sara Swann April 8, 2024

No, Alina Habba didn’t accuse New York judge of taking a $10 million bribe to ‘convict’ Donald Trump

If Your Time is short

A spokesperson for Alina Habba, one of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys, told PolitiFact that this claim is false and Habba doesn’t have a Telegram account.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron didn’t "convict" Trump because this case is a civil fraud case, not a criminal one.
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After a New York judge ordered former President Donald Trump to pay a $454 million penalty in a civil fraud case, social media users claimed one of Trump’s lawyers accused the judge of corruption.

A March 19 TikTok video showed still images of Alina Habba, an attorney representing Trump, and Arthur Engoron, the New York Supreme Court justice presiding over Trump’s civil business fraud case.

Text above the images read, "Awake yet? Donald Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, just exposed Judge Arthur Engoron on her Telegram! He took a $10,000,000 BRIBE from Joe Biden’s shell companies to convict Donald Trump!"

TikTok identified this video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact's partnership with TikTok.)

(Screengrab from TikTok)

This claim was also reshared multiple times on X.

Threads posts

stated on October 23, 2024 in a Threads post

Kamala Harris’ statements about Trump invoking Adolf Hitler were based on a “debunked hoax from The Atlantic.”

In February, Engoron ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization must pay $454 million for fraudulently inflating Trump’s net worth. An appeals court lowered the bond to $175 million and Trump posted a bond in that amount April 1. New York Attorney General Letitia James has questioned the validity of Trump’s bond; Engoron scheduled a hearing April 22 to discuss it.

Although Habba has criticized Engoron’s ruling, there is no evidence she’s accused the judge of taking a bribe from Biden. Erica Knight, Habba’s spokesperson, told PolitiFact Habba made no such assertion. We also found no posts on Habba’s social media accounts or credible news coverage of her supposed bribery accusation.

We searched "Alina Habba" on Telegram and found at least 10 accounts — some with thousands of followers — using her name and likeness. None of these accounts are authentic because Habba doesn’t have a Telegram account, her spokesperson said.

(Screengrabs from Telegram)

The social media posts also wrongly claim that Engoron convicted Trump. Civil court cases, such as the one Trump lost in New York, can involve disputes about money and debts, property, injuries, marriage or children. Civil cases result in monetary damages or court orders, not convictions, which occur when people are found guilty in criminal cases.

We rate the claim that Habba said on Telegram that Engoron took a "$10 million bribe from Joe Biden’s shell companies to convict Donald Trump" False.