Donald Trump Has a New Drama Show: One of the attorneys representing former President Donald Trump has left the legal team and is describing a chaotic scene inside Team Trump.
What We Know on Donald Trump and His Latest Problem
Over the course of the many investigations he has faced since he first began running for president, Donald Trump has worked his way through many different attorneys.
There was even once a popular podcast called “All the President’s Lawyers.”
That continues to be the case, as the former president faces legal jeopardy.
Last week, one of the attorneys Trump has retained in connection with the special counsel investigations has withdrawn from the case and laid out why.
Attorney Timothy Parlatore not only withdrew from the former president’s legal team last week, but went on television over the weekend to describe some of the behind-the-scenes drama within Trump’s legal team.
According to the New York Times, Parlatore appeared on CNN and stated that his departure came as a result of “irreconcilable differences with Boris Epshteyn,” another lawyer who has also been advising the ex-president.
Furthermore, he stated that Epshteyn “had hindered him and other lawyers from getting information to Mr. Trump, leaving the former president’s legal team at a disadvantage in dealing with the Justice Department.”
“As I said at the time, it had nothing to do with the case itself or the client,” Mr. Parlatore said on CNN, as reported by the Times. “There are certain individuals that made defending the president much harder than it needed to be.”
Parlatore added that, following the execution of the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last year, Epshteyn is trying to prevent the legal team from doing additional searches of Trump’s properties.
“If the lawyers are allowed to be lawyers without obstruction from people like Boris Epshteyn,” Parlatore said, “I would be happy to go back.”
Epshteyn has worked on Trump’s campaigns as well as in other capacities and also had a stint as a commentator for the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Politico reported that it appears Smith “appears to be in the final stretch of investigations” on both the documents case and his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
“Mr. Parlatore is no longer a member of the legal team. His statements regarding current members of the legal team are unfounded and categorically false,” Trump’s team told the media in a statement.
Legal Problems Mount?
CNN reported last week that the National Archives had sent a letter to Trump informing him that they are handing over 16 records to Special Counsel Jack Smith which “show Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president.”
Those records are set to be handed over on May 24, which is this Wednesday, unless they are blocked by a court order in the intervening time.
“The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records,” the letter from acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall said.
The records may show that the former president knew that he was disregarding protocols when it comes to his handling of classified documents.
Trump has claimed, including at his recent CNN town hall, that he “automatically” declassified documents as president.
A former Trump attorney from the Mueller era, Ty Cobb, told CNN at the time that “I think that this case is ready to go.”
Trump Headed to Jail?
Cobb had more to say in another interview this week, also on CNN, saying that he believes Trump “will go to jail.”
All prosecutors will have to do, Cobb said, is “show that Trump moved these documents at various times when DOJ was either demanding them or actually present” and also that Trump “filed falsely with the Justice Department, had his lawyers file falsely with the Justice Department, an affidavit to the effect that none existed.”
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Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
