'I Warned Them': Ex Trump Attorney Slams Trump Lawyer Joe Tacopina for Abruptly Withdrawing From E. Jean Carroll Case
Jan. 17 2024, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
One of Donald Trump’s former lawyers attacked another of the ex-president’s former lawyers this week, RadarOnline.com can report.
In a sudden development to come amid Trump’s mounting legal woes, lawyer Joe Tacopina announced on Monday that he would no longer represent the embattled ex-president in two different proceedings.
Tacopina was initially set to represent Trump in the criminal fraud case brought against the ex-president by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, as well as a civil defamation case filed against the 45th president by accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Former Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to criticize Tacopina for his handling of the Bragg and Carroll cases. He also admonished Tacopina for abruptly withdrawing from both the ongoing legal proceedings.
“He’s essentially been on the shelf ever since he screwed up the first Jean Carroll case,” Parlatore told MSNBC host Ari Melber during Tuesday’s episode of The Beat. “He’s very good at self-publicity, but not actually very good in the courtroom, and I think that that’s something that we all saw during the Jean Carroll case.”
“It’s something that I warned them repeatedly – do not bring this guy in at all,” Parlatore added.
Parlatore went on to say that Tacopina was “not a very competent lawyer” who “shouldn’t have been on [the E. Jean Carroll] case to begin with.”
“Look, it’s something that a lot of people in New York – certainly myself – have believed about him for a very long time, that he’s not a very competent lawyer, that he is somebody who’s more into publicizing his acumen than actually demonstrating it,” Parlatore told The Beat host.
“He’s really, in my opinion, not that great of a lawyer and shouldn’t have been on this case to begin with,” Parlatore concluded.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Tacopina was representing Trump in two cases before he abruptly withdrew from both proceedings on Monday.
The first case was brought against Trump by Manhattan DA Bragg in March.
Bragg indicted Trump on fraud charges connected to allegations that the ex-president falsified business records to conceal hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
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The second case was a civil proceeding filed by Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll in 2019.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. The former president was found liable for defaming and sexually assaulting Carroll in May 2023 and ordered to pay his accuser $5 million in damages.
Carroll recently filed a second defamation lawsuit against Trump after he once again accused her of lying about the initial sexual assault incident despite being found liable in May 2023. That second case kicked off in Manhattan on Tuesday.
It is currently unclear why Tacopina withdrew from representing Trump, and he did not provide a reason for his withdrawal when he announced the move on Monday.