Donald Trump’s lawyer admitted that the former president’s recent social media post attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was “bad advice,” though he noted that he is not his client’s social media adviser.
Attorney Joe Tacopina was pressed during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about Trump’s post on Truth Social, a since-deleted picture of himself holding up a baseball bat next to a picture of Bragg.
“Mr Trump this week described District Attorney Alvin Bragg as ‘Soros’s back animal’, said he was ‘doing the work of anarchists and the devil’, called him a ‘degenerate psychopath’, called Soros a ‘racist.’ is,'” said NBC anchor Chuck Todd. “As his lawyer, do you condone those comments?”
“As his lawyer, I want to dissect this case because it’s a case that shouldn’t be brought and that shouldn’t be brought before anyone other than Donald Trump,” Tacopina replied. “Let’s be clear about that.
“Does anyone honestly think, left, right or center, that anyone else would be prosecuted for taking a civil settlement in a hush money case with personal money? Of course not,” he continued. “Nobody’s ever been prosecuted for that. You know, the one we’ve come to is John Edwards that day, where a donor paid $900,000 for his wife and child to stay somewhere. That case was eventually thrown out by the Justice Department. They couldn’t get a conviction after that. get it. And that was with a donor.”
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“The distinction here is very wide, and it’s clear to everyone that, again, if you’re a supporter of Donald Trump or you don’t like anything about Donald Trump, we should all be concerned as citizens of this country about the use of weapons. The prosecution. And that’s it,” he added. .
Former President Donald Trump, left, faces an indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images/File | Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg Getty Images/File)
“Would you advise a client to personally attack a prosecutor like that?” said Todd. — I mean it’s dehumanizing, Mr. Tacopina.
“Again, I’m not his social media consultant,” Tacopina replied. “I believe it was a wrong post put up by one of his social networks, which he immediately removed (when) he realized the photo was attached.”
“You’re talking about a baseball bat,” Todd said. “He didn’t remove the other rhetoric.”
“You’re talking about the baseball bat, of course, that was on the cover of the New York Post. The New York Post thought it was a pretty rough hit. Here’s the thing: We went through January 6th. So this is not an opportunity for Trump’s rhetoric to create violence. like. It’s already happened once. Aren’t you worried that this might happen?”
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Donald Trump’s former attorney and financier, Michael Cohen, above, testified before a grand jury regarding allegations of organized cash payments on Trump’s behalf. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer/File)
“I don’t support that proposition that his rhetoric created violence. I think violence was going on that day. But I’m not here to argue that, Chuck,” Tacopina said. “I’m not going to defend or condemn anything about social media. That’s not what I do. I’m not a Trump PR person. I’m a litigator and a lawyer. And I’m talking about this case in Manhattan. It’s a case that’s not going to be filed for anybody but Donald Trump.”
Todd and Tacopina further discussed Trump’s use of personal funds to finance payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign.
“Honestly, I think when you’re looking at this right now, you’re being a little petty,” Tacopina told Todd, “because there’s no filing obligation. You can put whatever you want on your personal ledger. If there’s a tax obligation, that would be one thing. . If he had taken campaign funds, that would be something else. None of these things happened here.”
A doorman stands outside Trump Tower in Manhattan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/File)
Later in the program, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara joined Todd in the studio.
Bharara hit out at Tacopina’s argument that the lawsuit against Trump is unprecedented, calling that assumption “wrong.” Bharara also argued that Bragg was “cautious and deliberate” in conducting the year-long investigation into the former president, and said Bragg is in no rush to accuse Trump.
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Referring to Bragg’s convicted star witness, “Michael Cohen is the least guilty person if a crime has been committed.”
Danielle Wallace is a Fox News Digital reporter covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.