EXCLUSIVE Diddy set to hire celebrity lawyer Joe Tacopina who defended Donald Trump and got A$AP Rocky off the hook...but there's one hold up
The disgraced hip hop mogul is believed to be in talks with hotshot lawyer Joe Tacopina, whose previous clients include Donald Trump, but charges a staggering $2,400 an hour.
Most recently, Tacopina represented A$AP Rocky in the rapper's trial on felony assault charges, and got him acquitted by a jury in February.
Diddy, whose trial begins with jury selection on May 5, is mulling over hiring Tacopina but money is an issue.
Tacopina's hourly rate is among the highest in New York, where he is based, but he claimed in a recent interview that for that his clients get 'blood' from him.
Diddy's personal wealth, once, valued at $1 billion by Fortune magazine, has been downsized to an estimated $300 million. He has put his $61.5 million Los Angeles mansion on sale to cover his legal fees, thought to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
The 55-year-old, whose real name is Sean Combs, denies sex trafficking and other charges against him.
Diddy is already paying steep legal fees. He recently added Brian Steel to his legal team, an attorney who managed to get rapper Young Thug a plea deal in his recent racketeering case.
Instead of serving a 40-year jail sentence, Young Thug was ultimately given 15 years of probation and is now out of jail.
Diddy's other lawyers include prominent criminal defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo.
Tacopina is a heavy hitter who is known for his sharp sense of fashion as much for his legal acumen: he wears tight fitting, made to measure suits with his initials on them that show off his hulking physique.
His previous clients include rapper Meek Mill, New York Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez, and accused killer Joran van der Sloot, who admitted to the murder of American Natalee Holloway in Aruba.
As for the A$AP Rocky case, Tacopina managed to beat the case for the rap star, who had rejected a plea deal that would have sent him to jail for six months for admitting a single charge.
Tacopina represented Trump in one of the civil cases brought against him by journalist E. Jean Carroll but he lost and a jury awarded her $5million, finding that the President was liable for sexual assault and defamation.
In a YouTube interview earlier this month, Tacopina told DJ Vlad that his rate was $2,400 an hour - and defended it because he was worth.
When he said the number DJ Vlad was so stunned, he said: 'How much?'
Tacopina said: 'I've had people say I can't swing it. the level of demand I'm at now and what I get for that and what I give for it, I give blood.
'That's the number. If someone comes in and I happen to love them and I feel for them, I feel they're being victimized and they can't afford that I will always try and work something out'.
Earlier in the interview, Tacopina said that he cost 'a lot - a lot' and not just because of the A$AP Rocky victory.
He said: 'When I take a case…it's full immersion. With (A$AP) Rocky's case the whole office relocated to Los Angels, we shut down, everything else is gone.
'I had new clients coming in the door at that time and said I can't do it, sent them away'.
Tacopina said he ran a 'boutique' law firm with five lawyers, a paralegal and other people they bring in as needed.
He said: 'It's a lot of money, it's a lot of money for a case. Rocky paid, he's like family, he paid a lot of money.
'It's for what they get. If I was in a fight for my life, I'd want me because I know what I give. I don't sleep. There will not be a stone unturned. I have abilities when it comes to juries and cross examination that I don't think there's anyone better.
'I'm not being cocky….I've taken it to a different level. My cross examinations are devastating'.
While Tacopina was representing Trump his bare knuckle style irked some in the President's camp who branded him a 'loudmouth'.
Sources told Rolling Stone that Tacopina was a 'blunt object Donald Trump wants' but he was an 'idiot'.
Tacopina sees it differently and told DJ Vlad that for every hour of cross examination in court he had done 25 hours of preparation.
'I have that sixth sense: you have to have that thing where you smell blood,' he said.
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