Former Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina joined MSNBC Saturday to explain his recent departure from the ex-president's legal team the day before his latest defamation trial began. The conversation with Rev. Al Sharpton would be what Tacopina deemed his "first and only interview" addressing his move.
“I left the team because it was just my time,” Tacopina said. “I had to follow my compass, and my compass told me it was my time.”
Tacopina elaborated, saying he left the case for "personal reasons" but did not disclose any specifics. He also decided to take a cordial approach to discussing his former client, slightly jabbing at his former colleagues.
“While I see many lawyers, ex-lawyers of the president go on television once they’re removed from the team, or leave the team and discuss him, and his legal, team and have something to say, and criticize everyone around, it’s not professional,” Tacopina said. “It’s petty. And it’s it’s it shows a lack of confidence in oneself when you go out there and do that.”
The attorney also said that, while he doesn't find Trump's Manhattan criminal case alleging he falsified business records to be very strong, he has more concerns around the two federal indictments the former president is facing.
“The two federal cases are serious cases,” Tacopina told Sharpton. “And I think they’re they’re not to be taken lightly.”
He added that it's "absolutely" possible Trump could be convicted in either case.
“Look, do I think there’s a political bent to some of this, some of the the way this was gone about? Yes, I do," Tacopina said, noting that Trump will have to face a jury in three locations — Washington, D.C., New York City and Georgia — that aren't "particularly big Trump venues."
"So that’s going to be something to really have to grapple with there. And you can’t say there’s no way he’ll get convicted," he said.
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