Alina Habba Steps Down as Top Trump Lawyer for Rape Suit After Sanctions

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Alina Habba has stepped down as lead counsel representing Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll rape case. Joe Tacopina, who represented the Washington Commanders NFL team and Meek Mill, will lead Trump’s team. Carroll’s attorney said in a court filing that Habba would withdraw completely, which Habba and Tacopina denied. Loading Something is loading.

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Donald Trump’s go-to attorney Alina Habba and her law partner Michael Madaio have stepped down as the top lawyers representing the former president in a pending rape case against him, filings show court

The move comes in a lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in a changing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s.

On Tuesday, defense attorney Joe Tacopina joined Trump’s defense team as lead counsel as it heads toward a likely trial, court records show.

Roberta Kaplan, an attorney representing Carroll, said in a letter Tuesday that Habba planned to withdraw from the case entirely.

“Yesterday, counsel from Habba Madaio & Associates LLP informed us that they intend to withdraw from this case, leaving Mr. Tacopina as sole counsel,” Kaplan wrote.

In an interview with Insider Wednesday, Habba flatly denied he would back down and said he is dedicated to representing Trump in his litany of court cases.

“I have not withdrawn. I have no plans to withdraw,” Habba said.

Tacopina told Insider that Habba and Madaio were “not walking away from the case” and that Kaplan was “under the wrong impression.”

“I’m not replacing him,” Tacopina said Wednesday. “I will enter as the lead lawyer in the case to try the case.”

Tacopina’s arrest comes two weeks after a federal judge in Florida sanctioned Habba and Trump in separate cases and fined them $1 million.

In that Florida case, Trump accused Hillary Clinton, then-FBI Director James Comey, and several Democratic party officials of conspiring to launch a Justice Department investigation into her Russian connections and sway the 2016 election in Clinton’s favor. Trump won the 2016 election.

US District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks dismissed the case and criticized Trump and Habba for “using the courts as a stage set for political theater and grievances.”

Following the sanctions order, Habba withdrew a separate lawsuit pending before the same Florida judge accusing New York Attorney General Letitia James of targeting Trump for political reasons. James is suing Trump and the Trump Organization in New York state court for $250 million, alleging they committed financial fraud by lying about property values ​​to avoid taxes.

Habba is also representing Trump in the New York attorney general’s case, and it’s not going well: James is seeking sanctions against him for “frivolous” answers to the attorney general’s lawsuit, including claims that the Trump Organization doesn’t actually exist as a legal entity and is just a branding shorthand. The judge overseeing the case had previously taken Trump to court for refusing to sit for a deposition.

Habba did not appear in court for a hearing Wednesday morning on James’ appeal of the sanctions. Madaio, his law partner, declined to explain why he was not there.

“She just couldn’t be here,” Madaio told Insider.

Former President Donald Trump sits for a deposition in the New York Attorney General’s case. inside

Carroll filed two lawsuits against Trump. Trump did not make any changes to his legal team in Carroll’s first case, which was a defamation case over Trump calling him a liar. An appeals court is currently deciding whether to allow that suit to proceed. Trump’s lawyers and the DOJ are fighting to remove Trump as a defendant in the case based on a federal law that protects public employees from being personally sued for employment actions.

The changes to Trump’s legal team are for Carroll’s second lawsuit, in which the writer accuses Trump of rape. Tacopina has experience in high-profile cases, including representing the Washington Commanders NFL team and Natalee Holloway’s suspected killer Joran van der Sloot, and has worked with celebrity clients such as A-Rod and rappers namely Meek Mill and A$AP Rocky.

It is common for parties to a lawsuit to bring on new attorneys as a case heads to trial, but this does not always mean that the previous attorneys will leave the case, or give the position of lead counsel to someone else.

Tapocina said the facts at issue in both of Carroll’s lawsuits are similar, and that he can defend both cases.

“At the end of the day, it’s the same damn trial, right? It’s whether or not this happened,” Tacopina told Insider, adding: “If it happened, then it’s defamation. If it didn’t happen, it’s not defamation.”

Roberta Kaplan, the attorney representing Carroll, wrote in a letter filed with the court Tuesday that “the latest round of changing attorneys is another tactic to try to delay the proceedings.”

Habba denied he was trying to delay the case but asked the judge for a conference to discuss “scheduling-related issues,” he wrote in response.

Correction: February 1, 2023 An earlier headline for this story failed to link the claim that Alina Habba planned to withdraw from the defense of Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll rape case with Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan. This story has also been updated with comments from Habba and Joe Tacopina disputing Kaplan’s claim in court, and saying he will remain on the case but not as lead counsel.

Laura Italiano contributed reporting.

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