Trump Attacks on Manhattan DA Are ‘Ill-Advised,’ His Attorney Admits

Even Donald Trump’s attorney declined to defend social media posts from the former president attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, including an image of Trump wielding a baseball bat next to a picture of Bragg’s head. A lawyer representing Trump, Joe Tacopina, characterized as “ill-advised” that post and another where Trump warned of “death and destruction” if he is criminally charged for a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

During Tacopina’s Sunday appearance on Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd listed the various attacks Trump has made against Bragg. “Mr. Trump has described Alvin Bragg this week as a ‘Soros backed animal.’ He said he was doing the work of anarchists and the Devil, called him a degenerate psychopath, and he called him a Soros racist in reverse, saying, ‘This is the Gestapo.’ As his lawyer, do you stand by those comments?” Todd asked. “Would you advise a client to personally attack a prosecutor like this? I mean, it’s dehumanizing.”

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“I’m not his social media consultant. I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up, and he quickly took down when he realized the rhetoric and the photo that was attached to it,” Tacopina responded.

But Todd pointed out that Trump left up a number of other posts attacking the prosecutor. “You’re only referring to the baseball bat,” Todd retorted. “He didn’t take down the other rhetoric… We went through Jan. 6, so this is not like a possibility that Trump’s rhetoric creates violence. It’s already happened once. Are you not concerned this could happen?”

“I’m not accepting that proposition, that his rhetoric created violence. I think violence was on the way that day,” Tacopina said. He then claimed that he is “not a Trump PR person.”

Tacopina also appeared on MSNBC this weekend, speaking to Al Sharpton. During the Saturday interview, he again said that Trump’s rhetoric on social media was “ill-advised,” this time referring to a post where Trump predicted “death and destruction” if he is charged in the Daniels case.

“I’m not here to defend all things Donald Trump,” Tacopina said. “I’m here to defend this case.”

On Friday, Bragg’s office received a threatening letter that contained an unidentified white powder. News of the letter broke shortly after Trump’s “death and destruction” post.

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