Donald Trump’s lawyer distanced himself Sunday from his clients’ escalating attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as he weighs criminal charges against the former president.
“I’m not your social media adviser,” Joe Tacopina said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” when asked by host Chuck Todd if he would advise a client to personally attack a prosecutor. Ill-advised post that one of your social media employees posted and quickly deleted when he became aware of the rhetoric and the folder it was attached to.»
Todd replied, «You mean the baseball bat thing, which, of course, was on the front page of The New York Post. The New York Post thought that was a pretty heavy hit.»
In recent days, Trump has stepped up his inflammatory rhetoric against government officials investigating him after falsely predicting last weekend that he would be arrested Tuesday in the case involving a hush money payment made during his 2016 campaign to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Bragg is investigating how the payments were documented on the Trump Organization’s books.
On Thursday, Trump called Bragg an «animal» backed by liberal megadonor George Soros, who is Jewish, in a post on his Truth Social social media platform. In another Truth Social post, he appears to have shared an article that contained an image of him wielding a baseball bat juxtaposed next to an image of Bragg’s head. Since then, that publication has been removed. Earlier Friday, Trump warned of «potential death and destruction» if he is charged in the secret money case.
Trump has maintained that he committed no crime.
“I am not going to defend or condemn anything regarding social networks. That’s not what I do,” Tacopina said Sunday. «I have nothing to do… I’m not a Trump PR person. I’m a litigator and a lawyer, and I’m talking about this case in Manhattan.»
NBC News reported Friday that the FBI and NYPD are investigating a letter containing a death threat and white powder mailed to Bragg’s office, the latest of what a senior law enforcement source described as » several hundred threats» directed at Bragg and his office in recent weeks. .