Global Courant
Two of Donald Trump’s top lawyers abruptly resigned from his defense team on Friday, just hours after news broke that he and a close aide had been indicted on charges related to their handling of classified documents.
Jim Trusty and John Rowley, who led Trump’s legal team in Washington, D.C. for months and were regularly seen at the federal courthouse, indicated they would no longer represent Trump in cases being investigated and prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith, who both examines the documents matter and Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election.
The layoffs were followed shortly by an announcement from Trump himself confirming that a close associate, Walt Nauta, had also been charged by federal prosecutors. A Navy veteran, Nauta had served as the former president’s personal aide and was ubiquitous during his post-White House days.
In their place, Trump indicated that Todd Blanche is a lawyer recently retained to help fight unrelated felony charges which in April by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, was to lead his legal team, along with a firm to be named later. Trump and his team liked Blanche, who is expected to play a more elevated, central role.
While Trump has shaken up his legal teams before, the current changes rob Trump of some of his most seasoned legal hands at the most perilous time of his legal travails. And it follows the recent departure of a third attorney who had overseen Trump’s defense in the documents issue: Tim Parlatore, who mentioned internal discordespecially with longtime Trump hand Boris Epshteyn, as his reason for quitting abruptly.
A potential silver lining for Trump: The case initially appears to be against U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who heard his lawsuit last year after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate. Cannon, a Trump appointee on the federal bench, raised eyebrows with her unorthodox rulings sharply in Trump’s favor that were eventually reversed by an appeals court panel.
Two people close to Trump did not dispute that Cannon might oversee the matter and said they were happy with the opportunity.
Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.
