High-Profile Trump Lawyer Withdraws From Trump Cases

Jack Phillips
By Jack Phillips
January 15, 2024Donald Trump
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High-Profile Trump Lawyer Withdraws From Trump Cases
Former President and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump arrives to speak during a "commit to caucus rally" in Indianola, Iowa, on Jan. 14, 2024. (Christian Monterrosa/AFP via Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump’s attorney in New York departed from his legal team on Monday, while few details were provided.

Joe Tacopina, the attorney, appeared alongside President Trump when he pleaded not guilty in a New York City courthouse last year on charges that he allegedly falsified business records stemming from payments made during the 2016 election.

But Mr. Tacopina told ABC News and other news outlets on Monday that he has departed. “I withdrew on all matters,” he said on Monday, without elaborating.

In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the business records case, Mr. Tacopina wrote: “I write to respectfully inform the Court that my firm, Chad Seigel and I hereby withdraw as counsel for Defendant Donald J. Trump in this proceeding,” according to reports.

A separate motion filed in a separate court showed that Mr. Tacopina is also withdrawing from an appeal of the civil defamation and battery case against President Trump involving writer E. Jean Carroll, which was also scant on details. “Notably, counsel’s withdrawal will not preclude the perfecting of the instant appeal. Indeed, Trump’s brief and appendices have already been filed,” it said, in part.

Jury selection was scheduled to start in a second Carroll trial on Tuesday, although Mr. Tacopina was never involved in that case. This trial is due to comments that President Trump made after a decision was handed down in the first lawsuit. Attorneys Alina Habba and Michael Maddaio are representing President Trump in the second trial involving Ms. Carroll.

A Trump spokesperson released a statement Monday after Mr. Tacopina’s departure but also didn’t specify why the high-powered attorney left.

“President Trump has the most experienced, qualified, disciplined, and overall strongest legal team ever assembled as he continues to fight for America and Americans against these partisan, Crooked Joe Biden-led election interference hoaxes,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement on Monday.

Attorney Susan Necheles is President Trump’s lead counsel in the New York business records case, which was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. Attorney Todd Blanche also appeared at the April arraignment of President Trump.

In the Manhattan district attorney’s case, President Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. He also denied wrongdoing in the Carrol case, asserting that he doesn’t know the woman.

The former president has been known to change his lawyers, sometimes making major adjustments in his legal representation at key moments in cases. Just hours before he was arrested in Fulton County, Georgia, last year, he changed his legal team. Also last year, he changed his lawyers hours after he was indicted in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified materials.

In November, a disciplinary committee said that it wouldn’t accept a complaint made by adult actress Stormy Daniels, who had alleged Mr. Tacopina had a conflict of interest in the Manhattan case. Her lawyers had tried to get Mr. Tacopina removed from President Trump’s case, while Mr. Bragg similarly suggested that there may have been a conflict of interest there.

But the lawyer said he had no direct communication with the adult actress. “I never met Stormy Daniels. I never spoke to Stormy Daniels, and I never reviewed any documents of Stormy Daniels,” Mr. Tacopina said last April at a hearing.

In March of last year, Mr. Bragg’s office charged the former president with 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from payments that he made during the 2016 election. While the case is currently scheduled to go to trial on March 25, 2024, and a court hearing was set for Feb. 15 of next year, few updates have come in the case—at least compared to the three other state and federal cases the former president is facing.

The district attorney’s office filed a partially redacted brief in November, arguing that “a grand jury decided based on the facts and the law to charge defendant with felony crimes for his conduct” and that “this case should now proceed to trial.”

NTD Photo
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks during a press conference following the arraignment of former President Donald Trump in New York City on April 4, 2023. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)

About a month before that, President Trump’s lawyers sought to dismiss the charges, arguing that it is election interference and noted he’s the leading 2024 Republican candidate.

“After a five-year meandering, halting, and roving investigation that entailed inexplicable and unconstitutional delay, the District Attorney’s Office filed a discombobulated package of politically motivated charges marred by legal defects, procedural failures, discovery violations, and a stubborn refusal to provide meaningful particulars regarding its theory of the case,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles wrote in early October.

The former president also faces state and federal charges in Georgia, Washington, and Florida. He’s pleaded not guilty to those charges, too.

The Epoch Times contacted Mr. Tacopina’s law firm for comment on Monday.

From The Epoch Times