Boy, some of Donald Trump’s lawyers have some serious cojones — take Joe Tacopina, for instance. During an interview Tuesday, he tried to snatch a paper away from MSNBC host Ari Melber during a feisty exchange.

Melber, fortunately, was a couple of steps ahead of Tacopina, who made several attempts to grab the paper. Melber was challenging Tacopina about whether Trump knew about the payment his fixer Michael Cohen gave adult film actress Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 election, Insider reports.

Melber asked about reports indicating that the Manhattan District Attorney is considering whether to charge Trump with falsifying business records to hide the payment to Daniels.

The payment was intended to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged affair.

And Melber was every bit as feisty as Tacopina was.

“Why was Trump hiding it and lying about it at the time?” asked Melber, playing an old clip of Trump claiming to not be aware of the payment.

Trump defense lawyer Joe Tacopina lunges for receipts on “The Beat.” pic.twitter.com/ysUbZKHmXY

— The Beat with Ari Melber 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) March 15, 2023

“Ari, that is—if that’s what you’re gonna consider a lie, a lie to me is something material under oath in proceeding,” Tacopina fired back.

“I didn’t say perjury. I said a lie,” Melber responded.

Touché.

Then Melber held up a hard copy of a transcript from an on-camera exchange in 2018, where Trump told reporters he had no knowledge of the $130,000. Tacopina leaned forward with his arm extended. He was clearly NOT happy.

“Could you put the paper down? Put the paper down. Let me answer,” Tacopina said.

Even though the men were smiling during the tussle, it was a tense situation. That wasn’t lost on Melber.

“It seems like we’re drawing some blood here because you’re having a strong reaction,” Melber said. “He did lie about it and in a confidential settlement you can easily say, ‘No comment’ or ‘I’m not getting into it.'”

As we’ve all heard hundreds of times before, the investigation by the Manhattan DA revolves around a $130,000 payment Cohen made to Daniels in late October 2016, mere days before the November election.

Trump continues to deny the affair and denies having knowledge of the $130,000 payment.

As the interview continued Tacopina revealed details of the potential defense Trump may use if he is charged, which his defense is expecting, with felony falsifying business records. This state charge can result in zero prison time or up to as many as four years in prison.

Tacopina contends that Trump made the $130,000 payment as a “nuisance settlement,” because he was following Cohen’s advice. Then he argued, rather unbelievably I might add, that the payment was not an illegal campaign expenditure.”

So… (let me wrap my head around this for a moment)… having (alleged) sex with an adult film star isn’t an “illegal campaign expenditure?”

Really? In what world? So people campaigning for office can just b*ng whoever they want, have a fall guy pay for it, and have that guy actually take the fall?

“If the spending, or the fulfillment of a commitment or the expenditure would exist irrespective of the campaign, it’s not a campaign law violation,” Tacopina insisted. “And I’m sure this would exist irrespective of the campaign,” he said in reference to the hush money payment.

Well, yeah, that part is probably true. Trump would likely do something like this whether he was campaigning or not. While his supporters may fall for his every word, the rest of us have run around this track more times than we care to count. So I hope these charges stick and his lawyers can go back to chasing ambulances or whatever the hell it is they do when they aren’t handling big-ticket cases.