Communications between adult-film star Stormy Daniels and an attorney who is now representing former President Donald Trump have been turned over to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Daniels’ lawyer told CNN.
The exchanges – said to date back to 2018, when Daniels was seeking representation – raise the possibility that the Trump attorney, Joe Tacopina, could be sidelined from his defense of the former president in a case pertaining to Trump’s alleged role in a scheme to pay hush money to Daniels.
Daniels’ communications with Tacopina and others at his firm include details relating to Daniels’ situation, according to her current attorney Clark Brewster, who believes the communications show a disclosure of confidential information from Daniels.
Tacopina denies that there is a conflict or that confidential information was shared with his office. He says he neither met nor spoke to Daniels.
CNN has not seen the records in question. But legal ethics experts CNN spoke with said they could lead to limits being placed on the role Tacopina can play at trial or even his disqualification. The impact that the disclosure will have on the case will depend on the circumstances and the substance of the communications, the ethics experts said.
The scrutiny of Daniels’ alleged interactions with Tacopina and his firm, however, underscore how the Trump team is already being thrown curveballs in how they approach the yearslong investigation even before any charges against Trump have been formally brought.
While there have been signs that the investigation is wrapping up and that preparations are being made for an indictment, it is not clear yet that Trump will be charged or when those charges would be unveiled.
Brewster told CNN he handed the Daniels’ communications over to prosecutors after seeing Tacopina make public statements…
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