According to a new Rolling Stone report, some of Donald Trump’s lawyers are worried about Joe Tacopina, the lawyer who led the former president’s defense in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office case.
Trump was indicted last week by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his role in the 2016 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for the porn star’s silence about the alleged affair. At the time of the indictment, Trump said he knew there were allegations, and Tacopina made several controversial media appearances to discuss the case.
Citing sources familiar with the matter and others close to Trump, Rolling Stone reports that other Trump lawyers have now privately described Tacopina as “stupid” and “loud-mouthed.” Trump’s lawyers and advisers have warned the former president to be wary of Tacopina and that he cannot trust her loyalty, the source said. Another source familiar with the matter called it “so stupid,” Rolling Stone said.
In a statement, Tacopina told the magazine: “When anonymous sources make comments criticizing others, it shows jealousy and cowardice. Anyone who sees my record of success and the results I have achieved for my clients cannot seriously criticize my work or my intelligence.
Tacopina has a record of representing police and high-profile clients, including rapper Meek Mill and baseball player Alex Rodriguez. He has also spent more than ten years as a top executive in several Italian football clubs and worked as an expert in the American media.
During an appearance on CNN in 2018 as a legal commentator, Tacopina made comments about Trump and Daniels’ money payments that contradicted the defense he had given since taking on Trump as a client.
In that appearance, he suggested he believed Trump had a relationship with Daniels and that the payment “could be seen as an election-time donation,” which could be a “real problem.”
But now, Tacopina has reversed course, characterizing the payments to Daniels as “extortion,” denying Trump had a relationship and denying possible campaign finance violations.