Donald Trump Mocked After Losing Three Lawyers in a Day: 'Sinking Ship'

Donald Trump has been mocked after losing three of the lawyers fighting his legal battles.

The attorneys, Joe Tacopina and his two partners, Chad Seigel and Matthew DeOreo, had been representing the former president in an indictment accusing him of falsifying business records over a hush money payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair secret in the weeks before the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the case's 34 felony counts.

They also withdrew from a damages trial after a New York City jury awarded E. Jean Carroll, a journalist, $5 million in damages in May, ruling that Trump had sexually assaulted her and was civilly liable for defamation.

Tacopina filed a declaration requesting the withdrawal of his firm's representation of the former president in the Carroll case on Monday. He also requested that Judge Lewis Kaplan allow Tacopina's partners to withdraw their services.

"I respectfully submit this Declaration in support of [Tacopina Seigel and DeOreo's] motion, made pursuant to Local Civil Rule 27.1, to withdraw as counsel (including TSD attorneys Joseph Tacopina, Chad D. Seigel and Matthew G. DeOreo) for Trump, with such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper," Tacopina wrote in the filing.

Tacopina didn't specify a "legal or factual basis to withdraw" in his filing. Newsweek contacted his firm and a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.

In response to the lawyer's departure, Trump critics mocked the Republican.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, influential Democratic account Occupy Democrats wrote: "It look like the rats are fleeing the sinking ship."

"This is like a football team losing their star quarterback right before the Superbowl," they added of Tacopina's departure.

Another anti-Trump account, Boston Smalls, wrote: "I see another Trump lawyer quit. Hey Maga, remember when trump was running for president and he was like, 'we're gonna win so much you're gonna get tired of winning?' How's that working out?

Another anti-Republican account with over 240,000 followers wrote: "Trump's lawyer in the punitive damages E. Jean Carroll case just filed to dump him as a client one day before the trial starts.

"So. Much. Winning."

Writing on her Substack blog, Mary Trump, the former president's estranged niece and frequent critic said: "The loss of counsel is a major set back for any defense."

She added: "This close to trial, lawyers will have spent hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours compiling evidence and gaining an understanding of the nuances of the case.

"New lawyers might not have to start from scratch, but catching up would be a difficult task."

"And that is just too too bad," she wrote in what appeared to be an ironic tone.