Unearthed footage from 2018 shows Trump's current lawyer saying the Stormy Daniels hush-money payment could be a 'real problem' for Trump

• CNN unearthed video footage showing Trump's current lawyer saying in 2018 that the Stormy Daniels hush-money payment could be a "real problem" for Trump.

• The lawyer, Joe Tacopina, also said the payment could have violated federal election laws.

• He's struck a different tone since becoming Trump's lawyer, saying Trump is the victim of an extortion plot.

A defense attorney representing Donald Trump in the Manhattan district attorney's probe into a hush-money payment made to Stormy Daniels said several years ago that the payment could pose a "real problem" for Trump.

The lawyer, Joe Tacopina, made multiple appearances on CNN in 2018, when the $130,000 payment first came to light as part of a federal criminal investigation — separate from the DA's current probe — into Michael Cohen, who was then Trump's longtime fixer.

"If it leads back to the Trump campaign funding, that's a big problem," Tacopina told CNN in a March 2018 interview. "This is a Pandora's box that's gonna be opened and unfortunately is not going to have any good results for the president."

In another CNN segment in 2018, Tacopina said that the payment could be subject to scrutiny if the money to Daniels was "made on behalf of the candidate ... and it was not declared."

"That's fair game, unfortunately, if that's the case," he said.

According to a CNN report, Tacopina also said that the payment "could be looked as an in-kind contribution at the time of the election."