The unexpected departure of Joe Tacopina and his law firm from representing former president and multi-market defendant Donald Trump last week had people speculating about the reason, with Tacopina himself saying his “compass told [him]” it was time to go.  Representing Trump in both the E. Jean Carroll defamation case and the Manhattan financial fraud/extramarital affair hush money case, Tacopina was seen as a more experienced, more professional representative than, say, Alina Habba, who appears to be learning on the job.

Speculation revolved around speculation that Tacopina finally getting fed up with Trump ignoring his lawyers’ advice, Trump continuing to make defamatory statements, and/or Trump’s courtroom outburst.  But the actual reason may be more mundane:  FEC filings show Tacopina’s law firm collecting $1.78 million in fees through June 2023 from a Trump-affiliated Super PAC, all coming from the Save America PAC.

On-the-job trainee Alina Habba’s law firm, on the other hand, has collected nearly double that amount–$3.5 million through June 2023–even though she was taken off all other Trump cases but the already-lost Carroll case, in which her performance has made her a laughingstock of the legal profession.  Habba also serves as a “senior advisor” for Trump’s MAGA Super PAC and his “legal spokesperson” for his various cases.  She previously had represented Trump in lawsuits against Hillary Clinton and Mary Trump, both of which were thrown out; she and Trump were fined nearly one million dollars to cover some of the defendants’ legal costs.