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Over the last couple of years, Donald Trump has confronted a variety of problems involving his legal team. As regular readers might recall, some of the former president’s lawyers, for example, have been indicted.
Some of the lawyers in Trump’s orbit, meanwhile, are facing disbarment. Others have made unflattering public comments about their former client. A couple of attorneys from the former president’s legal team have said things to reporters that seemed to undermine the Republican’s interests.
But just as notable is the fact that a variety of Trump attorneys have parted ways with their client. David Findling, for example, did not last long on the former president’s legal team. His departure came on the heels of Trump parting ways with Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer who helped lead the former president’s defense team in the classified documents case. A month later, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, two of the former president’s top lawyers, also “abruptly resigned.”
Last week, the list grew a little longer. The New York Times reported:
Joseph Tacopina, the trial lawyer on Donald J. Trump’s legal team with the most successes defending high-profile clients, will no longer represent the former president in his criminal trial in Manhattan, according to a notice sent to the court on Monday. Mr. Tacopina also withdrew on Monday from another case in which he was still legally representing Mr. Trump: an appeal of the verdict in a lawsuit brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll.
While the attorney initially said very little about his decision, Tacopina sat down over the weekend with the Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC.
“I left the team because it was just my time,” Trump’s former lawyer said. “I had to follow my compass and my compass told me my time there was done. There are a lot of personal reasons that went into that, things that I can’t and won’t discuss.”
As part of the same on-air interview, Tacopina added that he believes the cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith, as well as the election interference case in Georgia, represent “serious cases” that are “not to be taken lightly.”
Asked if he believes his former client might yet be convicted in the upcoming criminal trials, Tacopina replied, “Absolutely.”
If Trump begins trashing his former lawyer via his social media platform, at least we’ll know why.