- Donald Trump's lawyer asked the New York Attorney General's office if it would investigate Hillary Clinton.
- It's a reference to a right-wing conspiracy theory claiming she spied on Trump's White House.
- This was in the middle of a court hearing over whether he should sit for a deposition about Trump Organization finances.
Former President Donald Trump's attorney Alina Habba asked a lawyer from the New York Attorney General's office if his office would "go after Hillary Clinton" in a hearing about whether the former president should be forced to sit for a deposition about his company's finances.
"I want to know, Mr. Wallace, Ms. James, are you gonna go after Hillary Clinton for what she's doing to my client?" Habba said, referring to New York Attorney General Letitia James and Kevin Wallace, an attorney representing her in the hearing. "That she spied at Trump Tower in your state? Are you gonna look into her business dealings?"
The conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton spied on Trump in the White House has proliferated through right-wing media outlets in recent days. As Insider's Sonam Sheth reported, it stems from a misreading of court documents filed by Special Counsel John Durham. The filings actually claim that a lawyer with connections to Clinton obtained non-public data from the White House during Barack Obama's presidency. The lawyer in that case has argued that he obtained the data legally.
The court hearing Thursday morning was convened by New York State Supreme Judge Arthur Engoron to hear arguments on a totally unrelated issue. James is investigating the Trump Organization's finances and whether it broke bank, tax, and insurance laws by misrepresenting the values of its assets. Her office issued subpoenas to Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. to sit for depositions.
Lawyers representing Trump and the Trump Organization have argued that James should be required to ask a grand jury to force the testimony, in which case they would be granted immunity in the case. James is running her civil investigation parallel to a criminal investigation in conjunction with the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which has already empaneled a grand jury.
Engoron stopped Habba's discussion of Clinton, saying they were irrelevant.
"The Clintons are not before me," he said.