The firm that has repped ex-President Donald Trump and his campaign in multiple battles with high-profile women has asked a federal judge to let them abandon the embattled politician in a sex discrimination suit by a former female adviser—even if he and his team protest.
The firm, LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Kittredge, Carlin & McPartland, unsuccessfully defended the former commander-in-chief against rape allegations by writer E. Jean Carroll and in the 2016 NDA case brought by one-time aide Jessica Denson. But on Friday the firm submitted a motion in Manhattan federal court to withdraw as his attorneys as yet another suit advances. The lawyers withheld details about why they wanted to pull out, except to say that their rapport with the campaign had suffered “an irreparable breakdown.
The firm asked to explain its exit request to the bench in private, and signaled that the campaign might fight to keep them onboard.
“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,” Blumetti wrote in a declaration in support of the motion. “It is well-established that a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship is sufficient reason to permit withdrawal, even if the source of the breakdown is disputed and the client opposes the motion to withdraw.”
Neither Blumetti nor Patrick McPartland, whose names appear on the motion and have long fought on Trump’s behalf, responded to calls or emails for comment from The Daily Beast. Nor did the Trump campaign, which as of this writing has yet to object or accede to the motion.
But the request provoked outcry from the plaintiff in the case, first-run staffer Arlene “A.J.” Delgado, who has accused the operation of stripping her of her responsibilities after she revealed she had become pregnant. The father of her child is her former supervisor and Trump 2024 senior adviser Jason Miller, whom Delgado has also accused of raping her, a claim Miller has denied.
An attorney herself, Delgado joined the Trump campaign in August 2016 as a senior adviser and the director of Hispanic outreach. She claims in her lawsuit that Trump praised her as a “star” and said multiple times that he would hire her as a White House staffer if he won the 2016 election.
The lawsuit also alleges discrimination from three of Trump’s top lieutenants when he entered the White House— Stephen Bannon, Sean Spicer, and Reince Priebus—who she claims sidelined her once he came into office. She gave birth to the child in July 2017.
Trump’s lawyers Jared Blumetti and Patrick McPartland.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
In her objection, Delgado—who is representing herself—wrote that the withdrawal motion “stinks to high heaven.” She noted that only two days prior, the judge in the case had granted one of her motions to compel disclosure of “information concerning gender-related complaints against the Campaign during the 2016 and 2020 campaign cycles, including complaints of sexual harassment, gender, or pregnancy discrimination.”
Delgado also highlighted that only days remain in the discovery process, and that the firm has not sought to sever from Trump in an ongoing case involving Denson in New York State.
“The firm cannot be permitted to the withdraw in the middle of compliance on a pending, imminently due, specific order,” Delgado asserted. “This is, as aforementioned, seeking to swap players on the field while a play is already in motion.”
