Joe Tacopina, the attorney representing Donald Trump in E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit against the ex-president, is being accused of another attempt to try to obtain the identities of the jurors who will be selected to decide the case.
The judge declared the jurors' identities would not be revealed to anyone given Trump's propensity to attack his opponents, and the willingness of some of his supporters to follow his lead. On Friday Tacopina strongly pushed back against that decision, going so far as to point to the comments sections of online news articles to "prove" bias against the ex-president.
On Monday, Tacopina sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, asking for clarification on how the judge will oversee jury selection, and insisting he be "involved at all stages of the jury selection process."
Judge Kaplan "said the need for juror anonymity reflected the 'unprecedented circumstances in which this trial will take place, including the extensive pretrial publicity and a very strong risk that jurors will fear harassment, unwanted invasions of their privacy, and retaliation,'" Reuters reported last month.
"While [we] understand that the Court has discretion over how to conduct jury selection in a civil case, we submit that counsel should be involved at all stages of the jury selection process (even in the Jury Assembly Room)," Tacopina's letter reads. "We also submit that counsel should have input into the Court's description of the case as well as into the questions asked of potential jurors in the Jury Assembly Room. Rule 47 makes it clear that the parties and their counsel have that right, and further, a more robust jury selection process in this case will serve the interests of justice. We would note that, in this regard, we already have submitted to the Court proposed voir dire questions to be asked, which have yet to be ruled upon. However, for present purposes we do wish to inquire further as to the Court's planned process."
Tacopina's latest move appears to be attracting attention.
"For better or worse, Joe Tacopina is the Chumbawumba of New York lawyers: He gets knocked down, and he gets up again," declared MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, apparently referring to this song. "He just filed a letter asking for clarification on the jury selection process in the Carroll trial--& insisting on his right to be in the rooms where it happens."
Dr. Allison Gill, who runs the Mueller, She Wrote Twitter account, adds: "ANOTHER attempt by trump’s team to get the jurors’ identities."
Meanwhile, well-known attorney George Conway focused on Tacopina's letterhead:
