From Publisher’s Weekly:
Embattled former president Donald Trump is threatening to sue publisher Simon & Schuster and author and former New York criminal prosecutor Mark Pomerantz over the forthcoming publication of People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account.
According to S&S press materials, Pomerantz, who investigated Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, purports to explain in his book why Trump should be prosecuted for financial crimes—and why he believes that prosecution hasn’t yet happened. Pomerantz resigned last February, reportedly after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was said to have put the brakes on an imminent criminal prosecution of the former president.
But in a letter this week, shared with PW, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina warns Pomerantz and S&S officials against publishing a book that repeats allegedly “false” and “defamatory” statements.
“I strongly admonish you to take these next words seriously: If you publish such a book and continue making defamatory statements against my client, my office will aggressively pursue all legal remedies against you and your book publisher, Simon & Schuster,” Tacopina writes. “Trust me, I will zealously use every possible legal resource to punish you and your publisher for the incredible financial harm that you have caused my clients to suffer.”
In a statement issued late Monday evening, Pomerantz dismissed Trump’s threat to sue.
“If the former president should sue me, I will defend that litigation,” Pomerantz said, in a statement issued through S&S. “I stand by the statements I have made previously, and those contained in my forthcoming book.”
The threat marks the latest attempt by Trump to stop publication of a book that criticizes him—which so far have only served to sell books. In 2018, while president, Trump attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to publisher Henry Holt and author Michael Wolff over his book of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. The media attention propelled the book to the top of the bestseller list.
More recently, Trump unsuccessfully sued Simon & Schuster and his niece, author Mary Trump, in New York state court seeking to block publication of her memoir Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. The book would go on to sell more than a million copies.
Link to the rest at Publisher’s Weekly
One wonders if Mr Tacopina has counselled his client concerning the adverse consequences attributable to a counterclaim under 28 U.S.C. § 1927 given the other context subject to judicial notice… not to mention that the client was just sanctioned under that very provision concerning other litigation directly related to the substance of Mr Pomerantz’s public statements concerning this book…
Naaaah.
I suspect Mr. Trump is a challenging individual for any attorney to represent.
As Mr Eastman is finding out.
This appears to mark the first attempt by the California Bar to disbar an attorney who undertook such… bizarre… advocacy that did not involve theft of client money or a prior major-felony conviction (of that attorney) this century. This says some really unsavory things about the Bar’s purported “self-regulation,” and it’s not just a California thing.