Judge Compliments Trump Attorney's Skill as Trial Nears End

• Judge Lewis Kaplan described Donald Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina as "heck of a good lawyer."
• Tacopina had previously criticized Kaplan's "unfair and prejudicial" rulings in E. Jean Carroll's defamation and battery suit against Trump.
• Compliments are not uncommon from judges to lawyers on "the losing side of the case," one commentator said.

A lawyer representing former President Donald Trump in a defamation suit received complimentary remarks from the judge as the trial wound down, despite previous friction between the two.

Joe Tacopina is currently representing Trump in a civil defamation lawsuit brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll. Carroll had previously accused Trump of raping her in a New York City department store changing room in the mid-1990s, which Trump has strongly denied ever happened. Carroll's suit alleges that the former president defamed her by claiming that she had lied about the assault for personal gain.

During the trial, Tacopina at one point called for a mistrial for what he characterized as "unfair and prejudicial rulings" from the judge overseeing the trial, Lewis Kaplan. In a letter outlining his complaints, the lawyer accused Kaplan of numerous decisions that he claimed favored Carroll's side, including allegedly mischaracterizing evidence in their favor and sustaining "improper 'argumentative' objections" from her lawyers during her cross-examination.

Despite this friction, Kaplan reportedly had complimentary words for Tacopina's performance as the trial wound to a close on Monday, according to Law & Crime reporter Adam Klasfeld. In a series of tweets discussing the trial, Klasfeld noted at one point that Kaplan said Tacopina was a "heck of a good lawyer" during an argument, even as the reporter noted he likely did not agree with his stance overall.

"When the jury wasn't present earlier, Judge Kaplan praised Tacopina as a 'heck of a good lawyer,'" Klasfeld wrote. "Even opposing counsel praised his skills repeatedly during rebuttal, an apparent concession to the rhetorical force of his summation — whatever one may think of his defense."

Later, in response to comments from other Twitter users, Klasfeld concurred that similar compliments are not uncommon from judges to lawyers on "the losing side of the case." In response to one comment making that argument, Klasfeld said, "There was definitely that dynamic at play here, too."

"In this case, Tacopina was being sharply questioned by the judge on a legal argument with the jury not present—and appeared to be losing on that issue," the reporter added.

In response to another user who noted that Kaplan had "spent the entire trial smacking him down, and rightfully so," Klasfeld explained further that the comment came "during an evidentiary dispute," and that "even when they disagree, he was saying, the judge acknowledges that he knows how [to] deliver a closing argument."

In other tweets, Klasfeld noted that one of Carroll's attorneys, Mike Ferrara, also commended Tacopina as a "good lawyer" at one point, though the compliment was seemingly backhanded, as he was praising the opposing side for knowing how to "cherry pick" certain information.

On Monday, Tacopina described Trump's comments in the 2016 "Access Hollywood" tape as "crude" and "rude" in his closing arguments, but said that Carroll's lawyers were using the "Art of Distraction."

"How many times did they play the Access Hollywood tape? Five? Donald Trump said women 'let' you do it. Yes, it was crude. He apologized for it in the debate with Hillary Clinton," Tacopina said. "They are using the Art of Distraction. They are trying to take parts of Donald Trump you hate and stretch them over her story. If this weren't about Trump, we wouldn't be here today. No way."

Trump has not attended the trial. Tacopina told the jury that there was no reason to call him as a witness as Carroll cannot recall when the alleged encounter was.

Newsweek reached out to Tacopina via his law firm email for comment.

Update 5/9/23, 7:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated with further information.