Who is Joe Tacopina? Ari Melber hailed online as Donald Trump's lawyer is left scrambling for receipts 

Donald Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina recently engaged in a heated discussion with MSNBC’s Ari Melber about the former president’s hush money payment prior to the 2016 election.

Reports suggest that Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, made a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an affair with the politician.

While the payment is not deemed to be illegal, the Manhattan District Attorney is currently investigating the transaction to review if Trump falsified business records to hide the payment.

Cohen previously alleged that Trump reimbursed him for the payment. However, the latter has denied authorizing the transaction in the past.

Meanwhile, Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina accused Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr., and several other prosecutors of conducting a “politically motivated investigation” on the former president.

Tacopina also sent a letter to the commissioner of New York City's Department of Investigation on Friday. He even appeared on MSNBC’s The Beat to discuss the situation.

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A look into Ari Melber and Joe Tacopina’s viral exchange

During Joe Tacopina’s MSNBC interview, Ari Melber quoted a New York Times report about Michael Cohen’s payment to Stormy Daniels while questioning the former about the transaction:

“I want to get the benefit of your response. ‘Prosecutors could argue that $130,000 became a donation to Trump’s campaign under the theory the money was silencing Daniels.’ So, two-part question. Why lie about this and why misidentify the payment if it was legal? And second, your response to that theory of the case?”

Tacopina then defended the payment by saying that Trump paid his “own money”:

“This is Donald Trump paying with his own money. First of all, there’s a crucial distinction between separating campaign funds from personal funds, right? And on personal fund usage, here’s the bright line test. And it ends this case. It ends any case regarding Stormy Daniels.”

He continued:

“If the spending or the fulfillment of a commitment or the expenditure would exist irrespective of a campaign, it’s not a campaign law violation. End of story. This would’ve exist irrespective of the campaign.”

Melber then asked Tacopina if he could point out other similar payments Donald Trump made outside of a campaign. While Tacopina said he has “no idea” about Trump’s payments, he said that the former president is “a litigious individual, who gets sued by a lot of people” and most of the time the issues are settled:

“…To Donald Trump, it’s what’s called a nuisance settlement, ok? And when you do that, it’s to make a problem, an embarrassing problem go away. Doesn’t mean it’s real, because he vehemently denies an affair. So, it doesn’t mean it’s real or not. It means you’re settling something to not have to deal with the aggravation of it.”

Ari Melber also played a clip of Donald Trump denying that he knew about Michael Cohen’s payment to Stormy Daniels and argued with Joe Tacopina if the statement can be dubbed a “lie.”

Shortly after, Tacopina lunged towards Melber to take away a piece of paper showing receipts from his hand. He was also seen saying:

“Could you put the paper down? Put the paper down. Let me answer.”

While Tacopina continued to argue that it was “not a lie” but a “confidential settlement,” Melber responded by noting that the former was having a “strong reaction”:

“It seems like we’re drawing some blood here because you’re having a strong reaction. He did lie about it and in a confidential settlement you can easily say, ‘No comment’ or ‘I’m not getting into it.’”

As the clip of Melber and Tacopina’s interaction went viral online, social media users hailed the former for leaving Trump’s lawyer scrambling for hush money receipts.

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Everything to know about Joe Tacopina

Joseph Tacopina is an American lawyer and a senior partner of Tacopina, Seigel & DeOreo. He is also the lead attorney for the Manhattan-based law firm.

The lawyer was born to Italian immigrant parents on April 14, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Poly Prep and Skidmore College before graduating from the University of Bridgeport Law School (currently Quinnipiac University School of Law) in 1991.

Tacopina began his career as a prosecutor in Brooklyn, and garnered significant recognition after winning 39 of the 40 trials he led. He then moved to private practice and successfully tried more than 100 cases, becoming one of the most respected high-profile trial attorneys in the U.S.

According to his official bio, Joe Tacopina is known for representing clients in “high-stakes civil, criminal and commercial litigation.” Over the years, he has worked with a series of high-profile clients like actors, musicians, politicians, athletes, judges, law enforcement officials and other celebrities.

His past client list includes: Michael Jackson, Ne-Yo, A$AP Rocky, Alex Rodriguez, Meek Mill, Sean Hannity, Swiss Beatz, YG, Don Imus, Emmy Award-winning journalist Sarah Wallace, executive director of the NFLP DeMaurice Smith, Kimberly Guilfoyle, NFL team Washington Commanders and team owner Daniel Snyder, among others.

The attorney began representing former U.S. president Donald Trump earlier this year. Joe Tacopina is also known for appearing on prominent media outlets like CNN, FOX, MSNBC and Newsmax.

He appears on WABC Radio’s Bernie & Sid Morning Show every week and has been featured as an attorney on the American reality court show, You the Jury.

Tacopina is also a faculty member of Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop, and a member of the Federal Bar Council, the New York Counsel of Defense Lawyers, and the Judicial Committee for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

He even serves on the Legislative Committee for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. GQ Magazine once described Joe Tacopina as “the best-dressed, smoothest-talking, hardest-working criminal defense attorney going.”

Joe Tacopina has previously been honored by the National Italian American Bar Association and named Humanitarian of the Year by Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

He also received the Man of the Year award from New York State’s Commission for Social Justice and was named to Billboard’s list of Top 100 Power Players in R&B and Hip-Hop.

Joe Tacopina has also been named a New York Super Lawyer, an honor given to attorneys who exhibit excellence in practice, and has also earned the Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent rating, the highest accolade obtained by an attorney from their peers.

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Twitter reacts to Ari Melber’s interview with Joe Tacopina

Ari Melber's interview with Joe Tacopina went viral online (Image via Ari Melber/Twitter)

Donald Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina recently appeared in an MSNBC interview with Ari Melber and was left struggling after the host questioned him about Trump’s hush money payment investigation.

A clip of Tacopina lunging at Melber to remove receipts from his hands also went viral online and earned the latter praise from social media users. Netizens also took to Twitter to react to the interview:

As reactions continue to pour in online, it remains to be seen if Joe Tacopina will further elaborate on his explanations from The Beat in the days to come.