The legal team is determined to 'fight to the end' to protect Mr. Trump 2
`You obviously have to fight for your client,` Susan Necheles, the lawyer representing former US President Donald Trump in the New York prosecution, once declared.
Necheles and Tacopina both worked at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office before switching to law careers.
Former US President Donald Trump raised his fist as he prepared to leave Trump Tower to appear in court in New York on April 4.
Necheles, 64, has repeatedly faced off against Manhattan District Attorneys, who have brought 34 charges against Mr. Trump related to `hush payments.`
Among the clients that Necheles once protected was Venero Mangano, a middle-ranking commander in the Genovese mafia gang in New York.
She led the team of lawyers defending the Trump Corporation in the tax fraud case, also prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which ended late last year with a fine of $1.6 million.
Necheles is known for his secretive working method, silently preparing meticulous litigation plans in court and being willing to `tear up` the plea agreement at the last minute if his client is not satisfied.
Joe Tacopina, her partner in this battle with prosecutor Alvin Bragg, has a fierce style of defending his client in a different way.
Tacopina (right) with client Meek Mill, an American rapper accused of using drugs and illegally possessing guns, during the 2017 trial. Photo: NY Post
Tacopina graduated with a law degree from Quinnipiac University and has more than two decades of experience as an attorney.
His familiar tactic is to bring the lawsuit on television to create more favorable public opinion for his client, to the point that Mr. Trump’s legal advisors were sometimes worried that this 56-year-old lawyer was making statements `
Tacopina joined Trump’s legal team a few months ago, taking on a civil lawsuit from E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault in a Bergdorf Goodman supermarket dressing room in the mid-1990s.
`We have two different styles, but my experience tells me that sometimes that combination is effective,` Necheles commented about the first time he and Tacopina represented Mr. Trump in a prosecution in New York.
Both Necheles and Tacopina are famous for their dedication and protection of their clients to the end in the New York lawyer world even though they choose different main `battlefields`, one chooses to compete in court, and the other on the battlefield.
Attorney Anthony Pope, who was Tacopina’s opponent in a civil lawsuit 10 years ago, commented that his colleague `never accepts compromises that are detrimental to the client` and appearances in the media.
Tacopina recently revealed that former President Trump was satisfied with the way Tacopina continuously went on air `to expose the reality of what we consider to be politically motivated repression.`
Meanwhile, New York judges and prosecutors are no longer strangers to Necheles’ fiery litigation style.
Necheles believes that heated arguments are normal and inevitable for every lawyer in criminal court.
Joel S. Cohen, a lawyer who has known Necheles since the mid-1980s when she first left the prosecutor’s office, described her colleague as having an `aggressive but effective` style in court.
Attorney Susan Necheles represented the Trump Organization in a tax fraud case in New York in 2022. Photo: AP
During his career, Necheles has convinced courts and juries to acquit many clients, most notably Eduardo Ballori.
After appearing in court on April 4, Mr. Trump was released on bail without having to pay bail.
Because it is unprecedented for a former US president to be prosecuted and tried, observers believe that Tacopina and Necheles will take advantage of their experience and skills to convince the New York judge to accept maximum charges.
`They will do everything to ensure that Mr. Trump enjoys a fair legal process, like all citizens and even more than ordinary people,` said Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor.
Meanwhile, Tacopina declared that this was an `all-out war` and pledged to `fight to the end` to make prosecutor Bragg and his colleagues `regret` for prosecuting Mr. Trump.
