Trump glared at Bragg: Arraignment details emerge from inside NYC courtroom
Federal law enforcement producer Jake Gibson speaks to Fox News national correspondent Bryan Llenas about Trump's arraignment and next steps in the case on 'The Story.'
Donald Trump's lawyer Susan Necheles sat beside him Tuesday when he was arraigned in a New York City courtroom on an indictment stemming from hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and other alleged crimes.
Necheles is one of three attorneys defending the former president, who pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records – a prosecution that he has called a politically driven "witch-hunt."
To Trump's right at the defense table sat Necheles and Todd Blanche and to his left, Joe Tacopina.
The motley group of veteran attorneys, who are squaring off for an epic fight against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, couldn't be more eclectic.
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his defense team in a Manhattan court during his arraignment on April 4, 2023, in New York City, next to one of his attorneys Susan Necheles. ( Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)
"She's like the anti-Trump: measured, quiet and thoughtful," a source familiar with the Trump investigation told Fox News Digital.
"Tacopina can deliver the hard punches in public, and the substantive litigation should be left to Susan and Todd," added the source, who knows each of the lawyers.
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Necheles, whose style is subdued compared to brash Brooklyn native Tacopina, is no stranger to the city's dingy courthouses.
Donald Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina, left, who is one of three criminal defense attorneys representing the former president an indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Gilbert Carrasquillo via Getty Images/ Bryan Woolston via AP)
Most recently she defended the Trump Organization in a tax fraud case that was also brought by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office but under Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr.
The organization was convicted of all 17 counts and fined $1.6 million.
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Necheles famously represented Venero "Benny Eggs" Mangano, a Genovese crime family underboss.
A graduate of Yale Law School, she started her career as a prosecutor at the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office before opening her own law firm.
Venero "Benny Eggs" Mangano's FBI booking photo. Donald Trump's lawyer, Susan Necheles, represented Mangano, an underboss of the Genovese crime family, early in her career. (FBI)
In the same courthouse where Trump is now charged, she negotiated a plea deal in 2016 for a once esteemed ER doctor who sexually assaulted four female emergency-room patients.
Dr. David Newman, who lost his law license over his sick compulsions, even drugged one of his patients before he attacked her. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
Noted defense attorney Stacey Richman described Necheles as a skilled trial lawyer with a sharp legal mind.
Susan Necheles, one of three attorneys who represent Donald Trump, appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on another case. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
"She's an excellent lawyer," said Richman, who has known Necheles for years, and has worked with her on several cases.
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Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, left storied firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he was a partner for five years, to join Necheles and Tacopina in defending Trump.
"They each bring a unique strength, but Susan, without question, is an anchor," Richman said of Trump's high-powered defense team.
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