Former Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina roundly debunked Republicans’s core conspiracy to delegitimize Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions—that his conviction is a politically-motivated attack from Biden—calling it “one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.” Tacopina’s stinging rebuke was shared during a pre-taped interview with Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation that aired Monday night.
“This is a state case,” said Tacopina. “This is different than the Jack Smith cases. This is not federal prosecution. Joe Biden—or anyone from his Justice Department—has absolutely zero to do with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. They have no jurisdiction over him. They have no contacts with them. They have no control, certainly, over him. So to say that Joe Biden brought this case is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard. We know that’s not the case. And even Trump’s lawyers know that’s not the case.”
Doubling down, Tacopina added, “People who say that, it’s scary that they really don’t know the law or what they’re talking about.”
Speaking with MSNBC, Tacopina assessed Trump is primarily seeking to use his conviction to raise campaign funds by casting himself as a martyr.
“How is he going to use this as a campaign boost? That’s the only thing he’s thinking, Tacopino said. “He’s clearly going to try now to use this to try to position himself as a martyr, and use this as someone who’s been politically attacked by his opponents, and that the justice system has been politicized. That’s how he’s going to use it.”
Tacopina represented Trump for his E. Jean Carroll civil defamation case and early into Trump’s criminal hush-money case, before he abruptly withdrew from both for unknown reasons.
Trump has spewed a stream of comically ignorant lies about his conviction while seemingly trying to rally his base to violence, and has indicated intent to appeal. If these claims are what he’s going with in pursuit of that appeal, we can reasonably expect it will be swiftly denied.
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