Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sought information regarding a potential conflict of interest involving Donald Trump's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, and Stormy Daniels, according to RadarOnline.com. Bragg's office recently sent a letter requesting that the judge presiding over Trump's hush money criminal case instruct Tacopina's office to provide any records related to conversations he had with Daniels before representing Trump earlier this year.
Bragg's letter, released Monday, stated, "Your Honor has asked us to provide in writing our position on Mr. Tacopina's potential conflict relating to his and/or his law firm's prior privileged communications with Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels), who is a potential witness at trial." The letter also requested a Gomberg inquiry of the defendant.
Bragg's office claims that Daniels contacted Tacopina in 2018 regarding possible representation in connection to the hush-money case against Trump, which has now resurfaced. The office also cited alleged "emails exchanged with the firm" and a "long teleconference" between Daniels, Tacopina, and other lawyers from his New York law firm discussing possible representation in 2018.
Daniels' attorney, Clark Brewster, contends that Tacopina should be removed from Trump's legal team due to the alleged conflict of interest. However, Tacopina dismissed the allegation as "patently false" and argued that no information given to him by Daniels is non-public.
In a six-page response letter, Tacopina wrote, "In this matter, Daniels does not even allege that any information she conveyed to my firm is non-public, let alone significantly harmful. Nor could she convincingly do so given her public disclosures to date."
As previously reported by RadarOnline.com, Daniels is a crucial witness in the hush money criminal case filed against Trump by Manhattan DA Bragg earlier this month. Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, is accused of paying Daniels $130,000 in hush money to conceal an alleged affair before the 2016 presidential election.
Before retaining now-disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti in 2018, Daniels reportedly considered hiring Trump's current lawyer, Tacopina. In addition to requesting that Tacopina submit all records of his communications with Daniels, Bragg's office has asked him to detail the measures he has taken to "alleviate issues related to this potential conflict."