Is there an echo in here? I ask because another “irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship,” has been reported between Donald Trump and a law firm long employed by his campaign and we have heard those words before. Yes, we heard them when Joe Tacopina quit, when Tim Parlatore quit, when Don McGahn, Ty Cobb, Evan Corcoran, and others left. It’s pretty much a mantra in Trump world. The latest firm to depart is LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Rosen, Kittridge, Carlin and McPartland. According to the New York Times,
late on Friday, it asked a federal magistrate judge to allow it to withdraw from a suit filed by a former campaign surrogate, A.J. Delgado, who says she was sidelined by the campaign in 2016 after revealing she was pregnant. The timing of the motion was notable, just two days after the same federal court had ordered the campaign to turn over in discovery all complaints of sexual harassment and gender or pregnancy discrimination from the 2016 and 2020 campaigns — materials that the defendants have long resisted handing over.
Delgado was impregnated by her supervisor, Jason Miller, back in 2016 and I’m sure you remember what a mess that was. The Times continues, “In the request, filed in federal court in Manhattan, the lead lawyer, Jared Blumetti, did not provide any details about the dispute, asking permission to “explain” the matter privately with the judge. Mr. Blumetti did not respond to a request for comment.”
Sometimes the story is in what is not being said. The LaRocca firm goes back quite a ways with Trump and while it’s not known if the firm intends to sever ties with him altogether, the Times points out that other lawyers have done just that, mentioning Tacopina by name and citing that four Trump lawyers quit in just last year alone.
The firm has represented Mr. Trump’s business interests for at least a decade, defending Trump Model Management in a wage case filed in 2014, for example. It also represented the campaign in both of Mr. Trump’s previous runs for the White House and was paid $1.8 million between September 2016 and December 2020, Federal Election Commission records show. Since then, the former president’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has paid LaRocca Hornik an additional $990,000, including a payment of $15,103.90 as recently as March 25.
It sounds like Trump is paying their bills at least. Although we don’t know what they billed and how much Trump actually paid. For all the mystery surrounding this issue right now, it could come down to a simple matter of dead beat Trump and a firm that just doesn’t want to lose any (more) money.
Ms. Delgado brought her suit against the campaign, as well as against the former advisers Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, in 2019, claiming sex and pregnancy discrimination.
While working for the campaign, she became pregnant by her supervisor, Jason Miller, a senior communications adviser and spokesman. When she revealed her pregnancy shortly after the 2016 election, her complaint said, she was relieved of most of her duties and “immediately and inexplicably stopped receiving emails and other communications.”
As part of the litigation, she has been seeking all other complaints of gender discrimination involving the campaign.
There may be a lot of closets and the LaRocca firm may know which ones contain skeletons. Delgado apparently is looking for the skeletons. And the firm is leaving at an interesting time, what with Trump in trial in the hush money sex scandal case and people like David Pecker and Karen McDougal taking the stand. Just why would a law firm that Trump has an established track record with decide at this time that they can’t continue to represent the Trump campaign? Kneejerk reaction is that there’s evidence that the campaign has (or hasn’t) done something that is of such importance that LaRocca has decided to save its own skin and get while the gettin’s good.
What I can tell you, is that if I was with the Biden-Harris campaign right now, I would be keeping an eagle eye on this story. Every little bit helps, right? And God knows if there was ever a candidate with a pattern of exploitation of and misbehavior towards women, it’s Trump.
Make no mistake, Trump in trial is terrible optics. Trump losing another trial, a criminal trial, is going to be horrific optics. And the LaRocca firm may be sitting on information that could be explosive, if added into the mix.
Jason Miller…oh, boy. Along with widdle Stevie Miller, Steve Cheung, Steve Bannon…they couldn’t name him Steve, too confusing.
They’re all cheap imitations of Don Snorleone. Monkey see, monkey do.
The only mystery was why this woman actually had an affair with Miller. He is pretty gross.But then most of Trump’s right-wing nut jobs are. Mnuchin. Barr. Miller. Epshtein. A lot of ugly going on.