Former Trump Attorney Savages Joe Tacopina for Handling of E. Jean Carroll Case: ‘Not a Very Competent Lawyer’

Tim Parlatore, an attorney who previously represented Donald Trump, did not mince words when discussing another ex-lawyer for the former president.

On Monday, Joe Tacopina withdrew from two cases in which he was representing Trump. One is the criminal case in which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges Trump falsified business records to conceal hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. The other is the ongoing defamation case brought against Trump by E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accused Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s. Last year, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation, and ordered the former president to pay $5 million in damages. Trump is appealing the verdict.

Tacopina did not give a reason for his departure. Appearing on Tuesday’s episode of The Beat on MSNBC, Parlatore submitted that Tacopina is in over his head.

“He’s essentially been on the shelf ever since he screwed up the first Jean Carroll case,” Parlatore told host Ari Melber. “He’s very good at self-publicity, but not actually very good in the courtroom, and I think that that’s something that we all saw during the Jean Carroll case. It’s something that I warned them repeatedly – do not bring this guy in at all.”

Melber asked Parlatore who is making personnel decisions when it comes to staffing Trump’s legal teams. In the ensuing exchange, Parlatore called Tacopina “not a very competent lawyer”:

MELBER: Who’s making those big calls, then? You say you gave advice, “Hey, don’t use this particular lawyer.” Who decided to use him?

PARLATORE: Well, I told Boris Epshteyn that this is not the guy for this case. So, what happened beyond that, did Boris keep it to himself? I have no clue.

MELBER: How do you think Tacopina, in your view, did not do a great job in that case?

PARLATORE: Well, I think he barely cross-examined Jean Carroll. He didn’t call the witnesses that they had prepared and obviously he was put in a bad position because they didn’t really do much, you know, good work in the discovery of that case. But here’s a guy that probably hasn’t tried a case in over 10 years coming in cold and barely cross-examining a witness.

MELBER: And you think that’s because of what? A level of incompetence? Or he’s out of touch with the courtroom?

PARLATORE: Look, it’s something that a lot of people in New York – certainly myself – have believed about him for a very long time, that he’s not a very competent lawyer, that he is somebody who’s more into publicizing his acumen than actually demonstrating it.

You know, he represented Bernard Kerik years ago and then became a witness against his own client, which was something that caused him to get pulled out of that case. In full disclosure, I represented Bernie Kerik in the litigation against Tacopina at the time, but you know, he’s– he’s really, in my opinion, not that great of a lawyer and shouldn’t have been on this case to begin with.

MELBER: Do you have any insight into why he exited now?

PARLATORE: I think it’s probably something that Boris and the comms figured that this was the best time to do it somewhat quietly, I’m guessing.

Tacopina made a memorable appearance on The Beat in March where he tried to wrest a piece of paper from Melber’s hand.

As for Parlatore, he has not been shy about sharing his thoughts on Trump’s attorneys. Last week, he threw shade at Alina Habba on CNN by saying that given her prominent role in Trump’s civil fraud case in New York, his legal team appears to be “un-led.”

Watch above via MSNBC.