Iowa caucus day happens to be the eve of jury selection in former president Donald Trump’s second E. Jean Carroll trial — a civil case over defamation damages in Manhattan federal court. He will be facing it, along with the state case against him in Manhattan criminal court, without his best trial lawyer.

The Times’s Maggie Haberman reports that Joe Tacopina has withdrawn from representation of Trump in both those cases. …

If Trump’s federal trials are postponed, as I expect they will be, that could open up March for the state trial on Bragg’s indictment, as initially contemplated. Nevertheless, given that the parties may have been proceeding on the assumption that the trial would not take place in March, it could be that a March date is now impractical — especially given that the defendant may now be looking for a new lawyer.