Joe Tacopina.Photo: Luigi Costantini/AP/Shutterstock
An attorney representingDonald Trumpin an ongoing Manhattan grand jury probe into an alleged hush money payment has worked to distance himself from the former president’s social media posts — some of which he called “ill-advised.”
Joe Tacopina, one of Trump’s defense attorneys, appeared on NBC’sMeet the Presson Sunday, during which he was asked about Trump’s recent social media posts, which have been made in response to an ongoing probe taking place in Manhattan.
In response to the probe, Trump has repeatedly taken to social media, where he has called on his supporters to “protest,” andwarned of “death & destruction"if he is charged. In another instance, Trump shared a post that included a photo of him holding a baseball bat seemingly aimed at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. That post has since been deleted.
After claiming that Bragg’s office had been “weaponized” against Trump, Tacopina was asked again about the social media posts.
“I’m not his social media consultant,” Tacopina told Todd. “I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up, and he quickly took down when he realized the photo that was attached to it.”
Todd then noted that, while the photo of Trump with the baseball bat was removed, the others remained.
“I’m not going to defend or condemn anything regarding social media,” Tacopina said. “That’s not what I do. I’m not a Trump PR person. I’m a litigator and a lawyer. And I’m talking about this case in Manhattan, which is a case that would not be brought for anyone other than Donald Trump.”
Donald Trump.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
For law enforcement agencies, Trump’s call for protests and suggestions of “death and destruction” have conjured images ofJan. 6, 2021, when the then-president called on a group of supporters to “fight like hell” and “march to the U.S. Capitol” as he continued to claim the election he lost was somehow rigged against him.
Already, law enforcement agencies in Washington, D.C. and New York havestepped up security measuresin the event that Trump is charged with a crime or is at some point arraigned.
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Trump’s legal issues in New York stem from an allegedsexual encounter he had with former adult film star Stormy Danielsin 2006.
In 2018, theWall Street Journalreported thatTrump had arranged a $130,000 paymentto the ex-porn star a month before the 2016 election so she’d keep quiet about it. Trump and his longtime (now former) attorney Michael Cohen initially denied the claims of an affair, though Cohen later admitted that there was a payment made to the porn star.
Trump has since admitted he authorized a $130,000 payment to Cohen, but has continued to deny the underlying claims that the two had an affair or that the payment was in any way connected to his campaign.
source: people.com
