A longstanding legal firm serving former President Donald Trump's campaign and businesses is seeking to withdraw from a lengthy case because of “irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship,” according to a new report and court records.
The firm LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Rosen, Kittridge, Carlin and McPartland on Friday requested to remove itself from a lawsuit filed by a campaign surrogate who said the campaign sidelined her in 2016 after she revealed she was pregnant, the New York Times was first to report.
"The timing of the motion was notable," the Times notes, "just two days after the same federal court had ordered the campaign to turn over in discovery all complaints of sexual harassment and gender or pregnancy discrimination from the 2016 and 2020 campaigns — materials that the defendants have long resisted handing over."
The surrogate, A. J. Delgado, is representing herself and objected to the withdrawal in a filing Monday, arguing it should not be allowed until the discovery process has been completed and calling the request a “scheme to avoid compliance," the Times reports.
Delgado made headlines in 2022 when she accused longtime Trump aide and political confidante Jason Miller of engaging in "a cycle of sexual coercion, rape, sexual assault, abuse, battery, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking."
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Lead attorney Jared E. Blumett, in the request in filed in Manhattan federal court, cites a problems he says cannot be fixed.
"The primary reason for the Firm's motion is due to an irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship between the Firm and the Campaign," he wrote.
The Times reported that Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker has since requested that LaRocca Hornik stay on to represent the campaign for a spell until she can schedule a conference to hash out the issue and determine how to move forward.
The firm has represented Trump’s business interests for at least a decade and his campaign in both of Trump’s previous presidential elections, according to the Times.
Trump's super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., paid LaRocca Hornik $15,103.90 as recently as March 25, according to the Times.
