A key defense lawyer for Donald Trump has withdrawn from the former president’s legal team.
Joe Tacopina, a highprofileformer Brooklyn prosecutor, had represented Trump in both his criminal hush money case and a sexual battery civil lawsuit brought by longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
The motivation behind Tacopina’s departure was unclear, though he confirmed it to The Hill.
The development came one day before Carroll, who won a $5 million judgment against Trump last year, was set to take him to trial a second time seeking damages for defamationand the same day of the Iowa caucuses.
Tacopina was still representing Trump in his appeal of last year’s verdict but sent a notice seeking to withdraw himself and his firm as Trump’s counsel in the Carroll appeal.
Trump has been known to cycle through a host of lawyers in his various legal entanglements, at times issuing major shake-ups in his representation at key moments.
Trump changed up his legal team in Georgia hours before he surrendered on criminal charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and he similarly did so in Florida hours after he was indicted there on charges over alleged mishandling of classified documents.
As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments, Tacopina took to defending his client both in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion.
However, for several months, he did not sign alongside Trump’s other lawyers as they submitted defense motions in the case, as the judge was weighing whether Tacopina had a conflict of interest in the case. He was ultimately cleared to continue.
Tacopina last year also represented Trump at trial in a civil lawsuit brought by Carroll, a longtime advice columnist who accused Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s, where Trump was found liable for sexual abuse.