Soccer executive and celebrity attorney: Who is Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina?

Lawyer Joe Tacopina is the head of the legal team representing former President Donald Trump in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into his alleged hush money payments to women claiming to have had affairs with him.

A Manhattan grand jury voted on Thursday to indict Mr Trump, allegedly for falsifying business records in connection to a 2016 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels for her to remain silent about a 2006 affair she claims to have had with Mr Trump, a claim he denies.

It has been reported that Mr Trump faces more than 30 counts of business fraud.

The hush money probe looked into allegations that six-figure payments were made to Ms Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both said they had affairs with Mr Trump years before he stepped into the political arena. Mr Trump has denied those claims.

Allies of Mr Trump paid the women to not speak out about their claims during the 2016 campaign.

The publisher of the National Enquirer paid Ms McDougal $150,000 for her story and then didn’t publish it. The deal was organised by then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen.

Mr Cohen himself paid off Ms Daniels. He was then reimbursed for the $130,000 by Mr Trump, with additional bonuses, and with the payments to Cohen being inaccurately logged as legal fees.

Here’s what we know about the ex-president’s top lawyer in the case:

Brooklyn-born lawyer known for explosive media appearances

Mr Tacopina, 56, was born in Brooklyn and has made a name for himself with explosive media appearances as he defends Mr Trump. He has also represented rapper Meek Mill and baseball player Alex Rodriguez, according to the New York Post.

Mr Tacopina is the founder and managing partner of the law firm Tacopina, Seigel & DeOreo in New York.

“The Law Offices of Tacopina Seigel & DeOreo has built a reputation as a law firm that tackles high-profile criminal and civil cases,” its website states. “We have proudly served our national and international clients for more than 20 years, and our distinguished attorneys have more than 70 years of combined legal experience.”

Before becoming a criminal defence lawyer, Mr Tacopina was a prosecutor in Brooklyn.

He was initially hired by Mr Trump in January of this year to defend him in the civil lawsuit filed by columnist E Jean Carroll, who claims that Mr Trump raped her in a department store changing room in the middle of the 1990s. Mr Trump denies the accusation.

1-800-Save-My-A**

In March 2007, GQ Magazine published a piece entitled 1-800-Save-My-A**.

The introduction states: “Suspected of murdering that blond girl in Aruba? Having some problems with your appointment as homeland-security chief? Made the mistake of having sex with Christie Brinkley’s husband? Call Joe Tacopina, the best-dressed, smoothest-talking, hardest-working criminal-defense attorney going, and for a mere $750 an hour, everything will be okay.”

Mr Tacopina has five children with his wife Tish, The Post notes.

‘Most experienced American owner’ in Italian football

In August 2021, he acquired the Italian Serie B – second-tier – football club Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, also known as SPAL.

In November of last year, Forbes wrote that he has spent “more than a decade as a top executive across four Italian soccer clubs,” and they called him the “most experienced American owner” in Italian football.

What Tacopina has said about the hush money case

Mr Tacopina criticised the indictment of Mr Trump, appearing on Fox News on Thursday saying that “I’ve never been more angry about a charge because today, the rule of law in the United States of America died. It’s dead. It’s dead”.

Speaking about Mr Trump, he said, “he’s ready to fight. You know, he’s the toughest guy I know. He was shocked, you know, because we really weren’t — I was shocked”.

Earlier this month, Twitter user Acyn posted a clip of Mr Tacopina from 2018, in which he appears on a CNN panel discussion with Frank Bruni of The New York Times and CNN’s Laura Coates.

Mr Tacopina appeared to say that alleged payments and subsequent falsification of records were an “illegal agreement”.

“I mean, you know, once that net is out, once the microscope is on you, everything is fair game,” Mr Tacopina said on 14 March 2018, according to a CNN transcript. “And it’s hard to argue, ‘oh, you can’t look at this or you can’t look at that’. So, yes, if there’s an issue with that payment to Stormy Daniels being that it was made on behalf of the candidate. Okay. And it was not declared. That’s fair game. Unfortunately, if that’s the case.”

“And you know, quite frankly, you know, Michael Cohen, again has made statements that would give rise to suspicion,” he added. “For any prosecutor to say that doesn’t make sense, that a lawyer took out a home equity loan with his own money, paid somebody that he didn’t even know on behalf of a client who, by the way, had the wherewithal and the money to afford $130,000. And, by the way, didn’t tell the client about the settlement agreement. It’s an illegal agreement. It’s a fraud, if that’s, in fact, the case.”

“It doesn’t pass the straight-face test, and quite frankly, if that is what happened, we have a potential campaign finance issue,” he added.

When reached by The Independent for comment, Mr Tacopina emphasized that twice during his 2018 appearance, he said, “if that is in fact the case”.

“I was opining on a hypothetical that was posed by the host without [knowing] any of the facts. That is [why] I qualified my statements. The facts as I have now learned clearly show, that is NOT in fact the case,” he said in an email.

“My mind hadn’t changed about the issue but what has changed is that I learned the facts,” he added.

“My response was based on a hypothetical question … which is why I qualified my response TWICE,” he noted.

Kings County prosecutor

Mr Tacopina attended Bridgeport Law School, which is now called Quinnipiac University School of Law, located in North Haven, Connecticut.

Before entering private practice, he was a prosecutor at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.

A rapper, a baseball star, a state senator, and a long line of New York City cops

Meek Mill was sent to jail in 2008 on charges relating to gun and drug violations. The rapper was convicted in 2017 for violating his probation. Mr Tacopina was able to get him out after five months. In January, the rapper was pardoned by the outgoing governor of Pennsylvania, Democrat Tom Wolf.

Mr Tacopina represented baseball star Alex Rodriguez in the appeal of his 2014 suspension after he tested positive for human growth hormones and testosterone.

The attorney has also represented several New York police officers.

New York Democratic state Senator Hiram Monserrate faced charges of felony assault in 2009 following allegations that he dragged his girlfriend down a hallway, but Mr Tacopina helped him get acquitted.