Donald Trump Loses Three Lawyers in One Day

Donald Trump lost three of his lawyers in one day when attorney Joe Tacopina filed a declaration requesting the withdrawal of his firm's representation of the former president in multiple lawsuits.

Trump is facing four criminal indictments and a total of 91 felony charges. One of these four cases alleges that the former president falsified 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, the clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has pleaded not guilty to the case's 34 felony counts and has denied any wrongdoing in this and the other cases against him.

Tacopina withdrew his firm's legal services from the hush money case only two months before the trial was set to start, at the end of March. Tacopina also requested to withdraw his firm's legal services from E. Jean Carroll's civil defamation and battery case against Trump, which awarded the former Elle columnist $5 million in damages last May.

Tacopina filed the declaration about the Carroll case on Monday. He also requested that Judge Lewis Kaplan allow Tacopina's two partners, Chad Seigel and Matthew DeOreo, to withdraw their services, as well.

"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Tacopina will no longer represent the former president in any appeals related to the Carroll case, nor will his firm be involved in a separate defamation case against Trump from Carroll, which is set to start Tuesday.

Newsweek reached out to Tacopina's firm and Trump's campaign by email for comment.

Michael McAuliffe, a former federal prosecutor and former elected state attorney, told Newsweek that an attorney might withdraw legal services for various reasons.

"A lawyer might attempt to withdraw as counsel of record for a client in a pending case for a number of reasons," McAuliffe said. "The attorney-client relationship might have suffered a fundamental breach of confidence, running in either or both directions. A strong-willed client who thinks he or she is more of a lawyer than the actual lawyer can create an untenable scenario for that lawyer to continue representing the client's interests.

"However, with Donald Trump, any lawyer who agrees to act as his counsel is on clear notice on that front," McAuliffe said.

Attorneys can withdraw their services for financial reasons as well, he said.

"For example, if a client stops or fails to pay the lawyer's agreed fees, in many jurisdictions that is a basis to withdraw as counsel. However, in other jurisdictions fee delinquency isn't a valid sole reason to withdraw as counsel in a pending case," he said.

Tacopina didn't specify a "legal or factual basis to withdraw" in his filing, McAuliffe said, adding, "It will be interesting to see if the court requires him to identify a basis."