From Bragg to Tacopina: Who's who in Trump hush money case

[April 03, 2023]  By Mike Stone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday where he will make history as the first former president to be criminally charged in a case that will likely take more than a year to come to trial.

At issue is a $130,000 hush payment to an adult film star made in the waning days of the 2016 election campaign. Allegedly the payment was hush money paid to benefit Trump's presidential campaign, to cover up a 2006 sexual encounter.

Trump is expected to enter a plea of not guilty.

Following are key players in the case.

ALVIN BRAGG

Trump's indictment has thrust New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg into the spotlight. Bragg, 49, took office in January 2022, the first Black person elected Manhattan District Attorney. Raised in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, Bragg decided to go to law school, he said, after having a gun pulled on him six times growing up, three of the times by police.

STORMY DANIELS

The adult film star, Stormy Daniels, is an author, director and media personality. She launched her own reality TV show, "Spooky Babes", in which she searches haunted houses as a "paranormal investigator", and she once flirted with a U.S. Senate bid as a Democrat-turned-Republican.

JUAN MERCHAN

Justice Juan Merchan is the veteran judge who serves on Manhattan's criminal court presiding over the case.

Last year Merchan oversaw a criminal trial of the Trump Organization that ended with the real estate company convicted by a jury of tax fraud and hit with fines, while one of its longtime executives, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and was sent to jail.

Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, arrives at ABC studios to appear on The View talk show in New York City, New York, U.S. April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

SUSAN NECHELES

One of Trump's lawyers, Susan Necheles, once represented Genovese crime family underboss Venero "Benny Eggs" Mangano and defended the Trump Organization in a criminal trial last year in which the company was convicted of a scheme to defraud tax authorities.

JOE TACOPINA

Another Trump lawyer, Joe Tacopina, is a sharp-suited frequent cable news commentator who is accustomed to litigating in the spotlight of New York's tabloids. He has represented rapper Meek Mill, former Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez and Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle.

The attorney told Reuters before the indictment that he is unafraid of controversial cases and that he and Trump have a relationship of "mutual respect".

Tacopina is also defending Trump in a defamation lawsuit from writer E. Jean Carroll over Trump's denial of Carroll's claim that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Sonali Paul)

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