(Photo by Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images)
Is it a good sign when you get indicted and less than 24 hours later your lawyers quit?
Asking for Donald Trump, whose attorneys John Rowley and Jim Trusty put out a joint statement this morning wishing their client the best in his future endeavors.
This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation. It has been an honor to have spent the last year defending him, and we know he will be vindicated in his battle against the Biden Administration’s partisan weaponization of the American justice system. Now that the case has been filed in Miami, this is a logical moment for us to step aside and let others carry the cases through to completion. We have no plans to hold media appearances that address our withdrawals or any other confidential communications we’ve had with the President or his legal team.
Last night Trusty, appeared on CNN to describe the summons calling Trump to appear in Miami on Tuesday to answer the seven-count indictment for obstruction, false statements, and violation of the Espionage Act.
Trump attorney Jim Trusty joins for his first interview since Trump was indicted. There is:
— An Espionage Act charge
— Several obstruction-based charges
— False statement charges
— Is there a conspiracy charge in here? “I believe so, I don't have it in front of me right now.” pic.twitter.com/8zOCynIygB— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 9, 2023
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Trusty went on to accuse Jay Bratt, head of the DOJ’s counterintelligence division, of “extorting” Stanley Woodward, an attorney for Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet, whom the Wall Street Journal says has been indicted along with Trump.
As reported in The Guardian, Trusty is describing an exchange in which Bratt is said to have made reference to Woodward’s application for a seat on the superior court in Washington DC. The implication is that Bratt was leaning on Woodward to get Nauta to flip if he wanted to get his hands on that gavel. The matter is currently under investigation at the DOJ, and will seemingly be a focus of Trump’s defense. Timothy Parlatore, another lawyer who resigned from Team Trump in recent days, has been all over television previewing the former president’s plan to rely on supposed prosecutorial misconduct as a defense to the charges.
This follows on reporting, also from Hugo Lowell at The Guardian (of course!), that Trump’s lawyers were so frustrated with interference from his fixer Boris Epshteyn that they had entered into a murder-suicide pact to resign as a group if things didn’t improve. If indeed this resignation is as a result of a big blowup, the former president is putting up an unusually serene front, thanking his former counsel for their work, rather than shittalking them and calling them RINOs on the way out the door.
For purposes of fighting the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time, now moving to the Florida Courts, I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later. I want to thank Jim Trusty and John Rowley for their work, but they were up against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil, and “sick” group of people, the likes of which has not been seen before. We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days. When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation? MAGA!
Tune in to find out which “law firm to be named later” gets the honor of defending the world’s worst client in the biggest news story of the year. Luckily Trump’s insurance lawyer Lindsey Halligan will stay on to ensure continuity of the legal team.
And BREAKING, even as we type, the indictment has been unsealed.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.