In an interview Sunday, President Trump’s former lawyer, Joe Tacopina, strongly denied claims that Trump’s hush money case in New York is the result of a “weaponization” of the justice system.
“This is a state case. It’s not the Jack Smith case. It’s not a federal prosecution. It has absolutely no connection to Joe Biden or anybody at the Department of Justice, the Manhattan district attorney’s office. They have no jurisdiction over him. They have no access to him. They have no control over him,” Tacopina said in an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation.”
“That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard – that Joe Biden filed this lawsuit. We know that’s not the case. Even Trump’s lawyers know that’s not the case,” he added.
Tacopina noted that just as the president does not have the power to grant pardons for state crimes, he also does not have the power to direct state cases.
“So it’s scary because people who say that don’t really know the law or what they’re talking about. I mean, it’s stupid to suggest that Joe Biden is behind the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution,” he added.
Tacopina made a clear distinction between the claim that Biden was somehow involved in the New York lawsuit and the claim that the lawsuit would not have been brought against the other defendants, saying he was sympathetic to the latter argument.
Still, he said the fact that a jury of 12 anonymous New Yorkers convicted Trump is significant in itself.
“Jury verdicts are different. And that also justifies the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution to some extent. It certainly falls outside of the ‘political witch hunt against Joe Biden.’ I mean, Joe Biden didn’t know who these jurors were, right? Nobody knew who these jurors were,” he said.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents to conceal a plot to withhold potentially damaging information from the American people ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Republicans have blasted the verdict, with some arguing the case is a political prosecution and will be overturned.
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