Did Tacopina Quit Over Trump’s Vow To Tell the Court ‘I Don’t Know Who the Hell’ E. Jean Carroll Is?

The building blocks of journalism are who, what, when, where, why. There are a lot of stories where “why” is the only fact that amounts to a hill of beans. Monday morning Joe Tacopina, a “blunt instrument” that Donald Trump likes to have around, a man that’s been described as “dumb” and “loudmouth” by his fellow co-counsel, filed a notice with two courts, stating he’ll no longer be Trump’s attorney in the Manhattan criminal trial, nor in the E. Jean Carroll trial. New York Times:

The withdrawals came a day before jury selection is set to begin in a second trial stemming from the allegations brought by Ms. Carroll, who accused Mr. Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Mr. Trump recently told The New York Times that he wanted to testify in the new trial, and that Mr. Tacopina had advised him against doing so in the first one — a decision the former president said he regretted.

During his closing arguments in the earlier trial, Mr. Tacopina noted that Mr. Trump did not testify and described it as the right decision. There were no questions he could have asked Mr. Trump about the events Ms. Carroll had described, he said, because she could not pinpoint the date of the attack and because Mr. Trump had already denied her claims during a deposition under oath.

Mr. Trump last week delivered part of his own closing remarks in the New York attorney general’s civil case, and was rebuked by the judge for going outside the confines of what he was allowed to talk about.

Now we get down to why. I can tell you that in the real world there are some basic reasons an attorney withdraws:

1. Inability to control a client. If a client won’t do what a lawyer asks, a lot of lawyers just cut their losses and move on. That could be the case here, considering Tacopina’s client. They may have spoken about these upcoming trials and Trump may be refusing to do what Tacopina counsels him to do.
2. Inability to get paid. We don’t know what Trump’s real finances are. Trump may already owe Tacopina a balance and not be paying it. Tacopina may have drawn a line in the sand and decided that beyond “x” amount of dollars, he would not go. Trump may have hit that line.

Bear in mind, Trump believes that he is a benefit to these lawyers. He believes that being associated with him, with his “brand” is worth money in and of itself. And it’s also well known that Trump follows legal advice that appeals to him, not necessarily the advice that his lawyers give him.

Now listen to what Trump said just this past week. “I’m going to go there and I’m going to say I don’t know who the hell this woman is.” That is delusional.

Trump delivers another rant about E. Jean Carroll that may be cited in a future lawsuit pic.twitter.com/SqzgV4xubt

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 11, 2024

It could well be that Trump is just so far gone mentally that he doesn’t know the difference between what he can say to the base and what he can say in a court of law and he believes he can tell this court he never saw E. Jean Carroll when he was found civilly liable for raping the woman. He is an adjudicated rapist. That’s in the court documents and that’s been entered into the Congressional Record. This is no small thing Trump is saying here. And it may be that Tacopina heard this, said, “JFC,” threw a shoe at the TV set and drafted a notice of withdrawal as attorney of record.

Or, here’s my theory: I think it’s a compilation of all three. I think Trump is a difficult client, I think there are some money issues or at least worries about money issues, and I think that this last rant of Trump’s publicly may have just torn it for Tacopina.

And I wouldn’t blame him one bit. And I bet I could get on the phone right now and call every lawyer I know and say, “What do you think?” and they would side with Tacopina 100%. Nobody wants to deal with what Trump dishes out. Some people do, because they can get some good money, especially if they get it up front, and then there are other agendas like becoming a right-wing media star.

If Tacopina isn’t looking to be on Newsmax in the near future, he really has better things to do than deal with Trump. He probably just decided that now was as good a time to jump ship as any. So I guess Alina will get a few more bucks now? This is getting nuts. This is getting downright nuts.