Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Demands Info Regarding Possible Conflict Of Interest Between Trump Lawyer Joseph Tacopina & Stormy Daniels
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently requested information regarding a possible conflict of interest between Donald Trump’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, and Stormy Daniels, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Bragg’s office penned a letter on Friday requesting that the judge overseeing Trump’s hush money criminal case order Tacopina’s office to hand over any records connected to communications he had with Daniels prior to taking Trump on as a client earlier this year.
“Your Honor has asked us to provide in writing our position on Mr. Tacopina's potential conflict relating to his and/or his law firm's prior privileged communications with Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels), who is a potential witness at trial,” Bragg’s letter, which was released on Monday, read.
“Respectfully, for the reasons set forth below, the People request that the Court make certain additional inquiries of Mr. Tacopina and conduct a Gomberg inquiry of the defendant,” the letter added.
According to Bragg’s office, Daniels communicated with Tacopina in 2018 regarding possible representation connected to the now-resurfaced hush-money case against Trump.
Bragg’s office also cited alleged “emails exchanged with the firm” as well as "a long teleconference" Daniels had with Tacopina and other lawyers in his New York law firm while discussing possible representation in 2018.
While Daniels’ lawyer, Clark Brewster, has claimed Tacopina should be removed from Trump’s counsel as a result of the alleged conflict of interest in the case, Tacopina has slammed the proposition as “patently false” and claimed that no information provided to him by Daniels is “non-public.”
“In this matter, Daniels does not even allege that any information she conveyed to my firm is non-public, let alone significantly harmful,” Tacopina wrote in a six-page response letter. “Nor could she convincingly do so given her public disclosures to date.”
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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Daniels remains a key witness in the hush money criminal case recently brought against Trump by Manhattan DA Bragg earlier this month.
Trump, who pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, is accused of paying Daniels $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about an alleged affair between the pair ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
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Before hiring now-disgraced attorney Michael Avenati to represent her in the case in 2018, Daniels reportedly explored hiring Trump’s current attorney, Tacopina.
Besides demanding Tacopina hand over all records of his communications with Daniels, Bragg’s office has also requested Tacopina explain the steps he has taken to “alleviate issues related to this potential conflict.”