Donald Trump’s outspoken defense lawyer Joe Tacopina has taken center stage in the wake of the former president’s Manhattan indictment over alleged hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The brash Brooklynite, with a roster of high profile clients from rapper Meek Mill to former Yankee Alex Rodriguez, has become the face of Trump’s legal fight against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. 

The defense team also includes Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche, whose surprise addition was announced Monday.

On the eve of Trump’s unprecedented arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court – the first time a former U.S. president will face criminal charges –-Tacopina spoke to Fox News Digital about the case and his career.

What does Tacopina say about Trump’s indictment? 

After Trump flew in to New York City from Palm Beach, Tacopina was one of the first people to meet with him.

‘[He’s] still in disbelief,’ Tacopina said of the 2024 Republican presidential candidate’s reaction to the charges. ‘But he’s in a fighting mood, he’s ready to go, he’s a tough guy.’

Tacopina contended that the case against Trump has bolstered the former president politically and financially.

 ‘This guy gets indicted, his poll numbers, go skyrocketing,’ he said. ‘He gets $7 million in three days in campaign donations, so people are standing behind the proposition that he’s being targeted by political opponents.’

Hillary Clinton, he argued, actually committed a campaign finance law violation. Clinton had to pay a fine after her campaign hired a firm to gather opposition research on Trump and classified the expense as legal services.

‘Now we’re at the point where we’re weaponizing prosecutors’ offices for political purposes,’ he said. ‘I’m horrified by that, horrified, because today, it’s Donald Trump but tomorrow it could be a Democrat.’

Tacopina was first hired in January to defend Trump in a civil suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Newman dressing room in the 1990s. The case goes to trial April 25, and he’s the lead attorney.

Who has Tacopina represented? 

Tacopina, a father of five who hails from Brooklyn, started his career as a prosecutor in his home borough’s district attorney’s office before switching sides and eventually becoming a partner in Tacopina, Seigel and DeOreo.

Tacopina, who owns his own soccer team in Italy, has had a long string of celebrity clients.

He represented Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder in a dispute with an employee, rapper A$AP ROCKY in a felony firearm charge and Alex Rodriguez in a steroid-suspension appeal.

He won an acquittal for ‘A Bronx Tale’ actor Lillo Brancato Jr., who was charged alongside an accomplice with breaking into a home and fatally shooting an off-duty cop who tried to stop them.

After then-state senator Hiram Monserrate slashed his girlfriend in the face with a broken drinking glass, Tacopina got him acquitted on the top charge.

The attorney has represented a string of NYPD cops accused of misconduct. These include Ken Moreno, who was charged with raping a drunk woman after helping her out of a taxi and one of the officers charged in raping Abner Louima with a broomstick.

Both were cleared of the top counts.

Tacopina also helped negotiate a plea deal for former NYPD police commissioner Bernie Kerik in state court for failing to report a $250,000 loan, but later became a witness against him in a federal tax fraud case.

Tacopina to his critics: ‘They’re cowards’

‘They’re cowards and they’re jealous,’ Tacopina said of the anonymous critics who have attacked him in the press, especially after he took on the Trump case. ‘If you look at my track record of success and wins you can’t compare it to anyone else’s. That’s the one thing I do. Win cases.’

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bill Tuesday to expand an address confidentiality program aimed at protecting domestic violence victims from their abusers.

It builds on a program shielding victims’ home addresses from voter rolls. The new law expands the program to mask their addresses on other publicly available government records.

The new law also removes the requirement that survivors have an emergency protective order to hide their addresses on public records. Instead, it will allow victims who sign a sworn statement to have their addresses shielded from the broader list of records.

The bill’s supporters include Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state, Michael Adams, who said the program will ‘help ensure survivors of domestic violence get the protection they deserve.’

It was among several bills signed by the Democratic governor to bolster public safety by supporting law enforcement and better protecting crime victims and children at school.

Another bill signed by Beshear gives law enforcement agencies the ability to create their own wellness programs to support the mental health and wellbeing of sworn and civilian personnel. All sessions and information discussed within wellness programs remain confidential under counselor-client privilege.

The governor said that officers ‘are interacting with Kentuckians on their worst day, so it’s essential that we ensure they are mentally healthy and have addressed any trauma they’ve experienced.’

The bill’s lead sponsor, Republican Rep. Kevin Bratcher, said: ‘With wellness concerns increasing within police departments, we must ensure programs are in place for them when they need help.’

The governor also signed a bill allocating $13 million to improve Jenny Wiley State Resort Park and Lake Barkley State Resort Park. The bill designates $5.5 million to Jenny Wiley park and $7.5 million to Lake Barkley park to deal with structural, exterior, mechanical and interior deficiencies.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., applauded what she called ‘social consequences’ for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Tuesday, after the GOP congresswoman led a New York City rally protesting the indictment of former President Donald Trump. 

Trump was indicted by a grand jury Thursday over alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign cycle. The former president arrived in New York Monday ahead of his court appearance, prompting political protests to break out in the streets outside the courthouse.

With a megaphone in hand, Greene led a rally outside the New York City courthouse to protest the indictment and support Trump before his arraignment Tuesday, but progressive representative AOC blasted her efforts as ‘shameless bigotry.’

‘Welcome to NYC! Where there are still social consequences for shameless bigotry,’ AOC wrote in a Twitter post fired at Greene, upon reports that the Republican congresswoman was being heckled at by anti-Trump protestors during the rally.

The comment came after reports that people were shouting and blowing whistles over Greene in an effort to prevent her from being heard during the protest.

‘We are here to peacefully protest against the persecution of an innocent man. Not just any innocent man, this is the former President of the United States of America,’ Greene told the crowd.

Greene also hit back at Mayor Eric Adams, after he urged her to be on her ‘best behavior’ ahead of Tuesday’s protest.

‘Also, to the Mayor Adams, as you can see, I am here peacefully protesting. He called me out by name,’ Greene said.

Trump appeared in court Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

First lady Jill Biden’s office on Tuesday attempted to lower the temperature after she received backlash on social media, including accusations of racism, for floating the idea of inviting the University of Iowa women’s basketball team to the White House, despite them losing to Louisiana State University (LSU) in the national championship game over the weekend.

‘I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,’ Biden said Monday. ‘But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.’

The first lady’s idea backfired immediately as thousands of quote tweets rolled in over the course of just hours.

Bishop Talbert Swan wrote, ‘Jill Biden is a white woman,’ and suggested the first lady’s race was why she invited the Iowa women’s team.

‘Of course she wants the president to invite the team of predominantly white women that lost when the winning team of Black woman come to the White House,’ Swan wrote. ‘She wants to give white women the same privilege that Black women earned.’

‘This is America,’ he added.

‘Jill Biden inviting Iowa to the WH has Angel Reese and Black people everywhere HEATED,’ journalist Touré tweeted. ‘The WH has a crisis on its hands…’

Another user slammed ‘people defending Jill Biden saying ‘it was such a good game and it brought awareness.’’

‘AWARENESS OF WHAT,’ the user wrote. ‘B—-ES BEEN PLAYING BASKETBALL FOR YEARS. Jesus Christ.’

Keith Boykin, who worked for former President Bill Clinton and frequently appeared on CNN, tweeted, ‘No Ma’am!’ and added, ‘When Black women win a national championship, they should not be forced to share the stage with the losing team.’

NFL Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe slammed the first lady on ‘Skip and Shannon: Undisputed’ while discussing the championship and said an invitation to the White House ‘isn’t a participation award,’ adding, ‘Winners get a trophy. That’s what life is about.’

‘Come on, Dr. Biden. You know better than this,’ Sharpe said. ‘Did you forget who helped put your husband in the White House? You gonna find out a very serious, hard lesson in ’24. [Joe] will be like a Kentucky or Duke freshman. You’ll be one-and-done.’

Other users, including progressive sitting members of Congress, also slammed the first lady for her White House invitation to Iowa.

‘Very respectfully Madame First Lady, that’s not how it works,’ ‘Squad’ Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., wrote on Tuesday. ‘LSU won. LSU comes to the White House.’

‘Iowa understands this and would most definitely respectfully decline the invitation,’ Bowman continued.

The first lady’s remarks also drew a response from Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., who gave props to LSU coach Kim Mulkey and the team and invited them to the Capitol.

‘In #LA05, we’re proud of Tangipahoa Parish’s own, Coach [Mulkey], and all that [LSU’s women’s team] accomplished,’ Letlow tweeted. ‘Coach — if the [White House] insists on making you share the championship visit, we would be honored to celebrate your team at the Capitol!’

‘DEI for the win!’ Washington Free Beacon journalist Chuck Ross tweeted on Monday.

Fox News Digital reached out to the first lady’s office but received no response.

Biden’s spokesperson, Vanessa Valdivia, attempted to walk back the first lady’s comments, tweeting that she ‘loved watching the NCAA women’s basketball championship game alongside young student athletes and admires how far women have advanced in sports since the passing of Title IX.’

‘Her comments in Colorado were intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes,’ Valdivia wrote. ‘She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House.’

Under Mulkey, LSU beat Iowa on Sunday, 102-85, to take the NCAA women’s basketball national championship home to Baton Rouge for the first time in school history.

The participation trophy-esque remarks drew strong rebukes from people from all walks.

LSU star Angel Reese led the charge, quote-tweeting the ESPN write-up with three laughing emojis and two words: ‘A JOKE.’

Fox News Digital’s Ryan Gaydos contributed reporting.

Maine lawmakers are preparing to take up several proposals in the coming weeks to expand abortion access, including one by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills to allow women in Maine to get abortions later in pregnancy if deemed necessary by a medical provider.

Current state law bans abortions after a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks. The governor’s bill would allow later abortions with a doctor’s approval.

Other bills would prevent municipalities from restricting abortions; strengthen protections for those who treat out-of-staters traveling to Maine for an abortion; and address affordability of abortions through private insurance.

Several hundred anti-abortion activists traveled to the State House Tuesday to make their views known. The event’s organizer, Maine Right to Life, said that it’s important for people to raise their voices in Augusta because that’s where abortion laws are determined now that U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. Abortions already have been banned in 13 states.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England tweeted that Mainers showed they support abortion access by electing ‘pro-reproductive rights champions to protect our reproductive rights.’

There are several Republican-backed proposals that would reduce abortion access but those face long odds with Democrats controlling both chambers.

Ronald Sarasin, a three-term Republican congressman from Connecticut in the 1970s who later went on to lead the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, has died. He was 88.

Sarasin died at his home in McLean, Virginia, on March 27, according to an obituary prepared by his family that did not disclose a cause of death.

Sarasin, who was born in Fall River, Massachusetts and grew up in Beacon Falls, Connecticut, was first elected to the U.S. House in 1972 and was re-elected in 1974 and 1976, representing the 5th District in western Connecticut.

In 1978, he won the Republican nomination for governor but lost the election to Democrat Ella Grasso.

Sarasin previously served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1969 to 1973. After serving in the Navy in the 1950s, he went on to graduate from the University of Connecticut and its law school.

After leaving politics, Sarasin was the chief lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association and later president and CEO of the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

From 2000 to 2018, he was president and CEO of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, which is chartered by Congress to educate the public about the Capitol, its history and its people.

In a Facebook post mourning his death, the historical society credited Sarasin for establishing educational programs including a traveling exhibit on the role enslaved people had in building the Capitol.

‘Ron met every challenge with tremendous strength to help us grow in our work and service to reach new audiences,’ the post said. ‘We are grateful for his life, his friendship, and the legacy Ron left us all.’

Sarasin is survived by his wife, Leslie, and two sons. A funeral service will be held May 20 at Gonzaga College High School’s St. Aloysius Church in Washington.

President Biden’s former executive assistant from his time as vice president testified before Congress on Tuesday that classified documents were spread out across three different locations in the nation’s capital, then ‘remained accessible’ to Penn Biden center employees when they were transported there, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. 

Kathy Chung, who joined Biden’s staff in 2012 and stayed in the role through the end of the Obama administration, sat down for a transcribed interview with the committee about classified documents that the president’s attorney say were first found at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2, 2022. Another tranche of classified documents were later located at the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Rep. Comer, R-Ky., said that Chung ‘provided startling information that undermines the Biden White House’s narrative on the matter.’

‘Today we learned that when Joe Biden left the vice presidency, boxes containing classified documents, vice presidential records, and other items were stored in three different locations around the Washington, D.C. area, including an office near the White House, an office in Chinatown, and eventually the Penn Biden Center,’ Rep. Comer said in a statement. 

‘At some point, the boxes containing classified materials were transported by personal vehicles to an office location. The boxes were not in a ‘locked closet’ at the Penn Biden Center and remained accessible to Penn Biden employees as well as potentially others with access to the office space. We need to find out who had access to these documents.’

Comer went on to dispute the White House’s timeline, claiming that ‘then-White House Counsel Dana Remus tasked Kathy Chung with retrieving these boxes from the Penn Biden Center as early as May 2022.’

‘This story does not begin in November 2022, as represented by President Biden’s attorney,’ Comer said. 

Remus did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. 

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, appeared to dispute Comer’s characterization of Chung’s testimony, saying that she wasn’t aware of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center until the president’s attorneys found them there last November. 

‘Ms. Chung has cooperated with Committee Republicans every step of the way—providing materials to investigators, voluntarily sitting for an interview, and working in good faith with Congress,’ Rep. Raskin said in a statement. 

‘She repeatedly explained that she was unaware that there were alleged classified documents at the Penn Biden Center until November 2022, when the documents were first discovered by counsel for President Biden.’

Chung – who was recommended to the president in 2012 by his son, Hunter Biden – now works as the Pentagon’s deputy director of protocol. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur, a veteran federal prosecutor, as a special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents. 

Separately, a federal investigation is underway into former President Trump’s handling of classified documents after an FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago home last August. Secret Service agents connected to the former president are expected to testify before a Washington, D.C., grand jury later this week. 

Comer said that Republicans will follow up with other ‘persons of interest’ in their investigation, while Raskin accused Republicans of turning a ‘blind eye to Trump’s egregious misconduct’ and creating a ‘mirage of fake evidence for their empty attacks’ on Biden. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday about Chung’s testimony. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom is traveling to Republican states he banned official travel to with a new political action committee (PAC) as rumors of a presidential run swirl.

Newsom and his family are traveling to Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi this week to boost Democrat gubernatorial candidates in the deep-red states with his new PAC, the Campaign for Democracy.

The California Democratic governor’s travels come as his name is thrown around blue circles as a potential front-runner for the party, should President Biden opt out of running for re-election in 2024.

By traveling to red states to promote blue governor candidates, Newsom is testing the political waters while positioning himself to either be a fundraising force for Democrats in 2024 or try to take the White House for himself if the path seems clear.

What Newsom will become for the Democrats in 2024 is unclear, but it will be heavily influenced by whether Biden decides to try and keep his job at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Newsom’s travel also posed a unique risk for the vehemently pro-choice blue governor: the Democrat candidate for governor in Mississippi, Brandon Presley, is very pro-life.

The California governor recently cut ties between the Golden State and pharmacy company Walgreens due to the company’s refusal to distribute an abortion drug in 20 states.

However, Presley and Newsom did not meet, with the governor instead spending the day with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Presley said he did not meet Newsom due to Palm Sunday services.

However, the governor’s plans — while not official travel — violate the spirit of the widely-panned political ban on state-sponsored and state-funded travel to 23 GOP-run states.

Fox News Digital asked Newsom’s office if the governor’s travel involved state-funded security and if Newsom believed his travels violated the spirit of his own law.

Newsom’s office did not respond.

Newsom’s spokesperson Anthony York told the Washington Free Beacon the governor’s trip had nothing to do with a state Democrat’s attempt to repeal the law and that ‘no state paid staff will be on his trip.’

The California governor dropped $10 million into the new PAC last week, making wild claims about Republicans in the states, including calling their governors ‘authoritarian leaders.’

Newsom claimed in his video announcing the PAC that Republican states ‘criminalize doctors,’ ‘intimidate librarians, kidnap migrants,’ ‘target trans kids,’ ‘stoke racism,’ ‘condone antisemitism,’ among other wild accusations.

The California governor, who famously broke his own draconian COVID-19 lockdown measures for a friend’s birthday dinner at the French Laundry restaurant in California, also claimed the state’s leaders ‘ignore the will of the people and make it harder to vote and easier to buy assault weapons.’

Georgia saw record voter turnout in the 2022 midterm elections after the enactment of the state’s voting law that Democrat critics falsely claimed suppressed voters.

Newsom has also taken to bashing states that rival his own, frequently attacking Texas and the Lone Star State Governor Greg Abbott.

Newsom has attacked Texas over its conservative values and laws on guns, abortion and taxes, even going so far as to put up billboards in the state promoting abortion access while running for re-election in California.

‘Texas doesn’t own your body. You do,’ one billboard depicting a woman in handcuffs said.

Another ad that Newsom ran in Texas said, ‘If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. If Gov. Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow California’s lead.’

Former President Donald Trump was photographed exiting his ‘Trump Force One’ aircraft and, later, entering Trump Tower on Monday afternoon ahead of his expected court appearance in New York City this week.

The former president departed Palm Beach International Airport in south Florida en route to New York hours earlier. Shortly after Trump’s motorcade left the airport, he was pictured waving to crowds outside Trump Tower in New York City before entering the building where he maintains a residence.

Trump is slated to appear before a New York judge on Tuesday for an arraignment hearing. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury Thursday evening as part of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s years-long investigation into his alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump’s lawyers, though, said Sunday that they expected to file a motion to dismiss all charges stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation.

‘We will take the indictment. We will dissect it. The team will look at every, every potential issue that we will be able to challenge, and we will challenge. And of course, I very much anticipate a motion to dismiss coming because there’s no law that fits this,’ Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina told CNN. 

‘And you have a situation where, you know, the federal government, the Department of Justice, turned this matter down,’ Tacopina added. ‘The FEC, which governs federal election laws, said there’s no violation here. Yet somehow a state prosecutor has taken a misdemeanor and tried cobble together to make it a felony by alleging a violation of federal campaign violations. And the FEC said that doesn’t exist.’

Hush money payments made to both McDougal and Daniels were revealed and reported by Fox News in 2018. Those payments had been investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and by the Federal Election Commission. 

However, federal prosecutors opted against charging Trump in the case.

Fox News Digital reporter Houston Keene contributed to this report.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson face off in the city’s runoff election for mayor on Tuesday, vying to replace outgoing incumbent Lori Lightfoot.

Vallas has positioned himself as a moderate and has the backing of the Chicago police union and major business groups. Johnson is a former teacher and union organizer backed by the Chicago Teachers Union.

Vallas finished first and Johnson was second in the February municipal election, which proceeded to a runoff because no candidate received over 50% of the vote. Lightfoot was eliminated from contention after placing third.

Here’s a look at what to expect on election night:

Election Day

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

How Chicago Votes

Voting is open to all voters, who can register on election day.

The AP will declare a winner in the race for Chicago mayor. The AP will also tabulate 14 races for Chicago alderperson but will not call winners in those races until after the results are certified.

In the February election, the AP first reported results in Chicago at 8:19 p.m. ET. The final election night update for overall results came just after 12 a.m. ET, with 90% of votes counted. Election officials separately released ward-level results, a process that continued until about 2 a.m.

Decision Notes

The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap.

Should a candidate declare victory or offer a concession before the AP calls a race, we will cover newsworthy developments in our reporting. In doing so, we will make clear that the AP has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

The board of elections doesn’t expect to release ward-level results until around 1 a.m. Before those results are released, the AP will analyze each update in the citywide vote count to see if either candidate has a big enough lead to withstand late-counted votes in areas that may support the trailing candidate.

Once ward-level results are released, the AP will analyze how the candidates are doing in the areas they won in the February election, when Vallas carried the city’s northwest and southwest wards and Johnson carried the northeast part of the city. The AP will also analyze how the candidates are doing in wards that were won by Lightfoot and Jesús ‘Chuy’ García in the February election, to see if there is any path for the trailing candidate to catch the leader.

The AP may call a race in which the margin between the top two candidates is 0.5% or less, if we determine the lead is too large for a recount and legal challenge to change the outcome. In Illinois, there are no automatic recounts. Trailing candidates can request recounts if they receive at least 95% of the total votes of the winning candidate.

However, recounts in Illinois are for the purposes of legal discovery only and cannot by themselves change the results of an election.

Q: What Do Turnout and Advance Vote Look Like?

A: As of Feb. 28, there were 1.6 million registered voters in Chicago. As of Sunday, 246,188 voters had cast advance ballots.

In the February election, 52% of Chicago voters cast their ballots before election day. Mail-in ballots can arrive as late as April 18 and be counted so long as they are postmarked by election day.

Q: How Long Does Counting Usually Take?

A: Chicago counts a significant number of votes after election day, which could delay race calls in a competitive election. In the February election, the city counted 10% of ballots after election day.

Election officials said they plan to start releasing citywide results shortly after polls close at 8 p.m. ET. However, they don’t expect to start releasing results by ward until around 1 a.m. ET.

Following election day, the Board of Elections plans to update results several times each day on Wednesday and Thursday, and then periodically through the April 18 deadline to receive mail ballots.