WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer who left Donald Trump’s legal team last week attributed his decision Saturday to strategic disagreements with a close adviser to the former president.
Timothy Parlatore, who had been a key lawyer for Trump in a Justice Department special counsel investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate, told CNN in an interview Saturday that there were “certain people who made defending the president much more difficult than it had to be.”
He singled out Boris Epshteyn, another lawyer and Trump’s lead adviser on multiple criminal investigations, whom he accused of “doing everything he could to try to block us from doing what we could to defend the president.”
Parlatore revealed Wednesday that he was resigning from Trump’s legal team, a move that comes as special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation shows signs of winding down and nears a decision on whether or not to file charges against the former president. . His comments on Saturday provided additional context for the decision.
In a statement responding to Parlatore’s comments, a Trump spokesman said: “Mr. Parlatore is no longer a member of the legal team. His statements about current members of the legal team are unfounded and categorically false.”
In his interview, Parlatore said Epshteyn had served as a “filter” to prevent the legal team from obtaining information about the investigation to or from Trump.
He also said Epshteyn had balked at the idea of the legal team months ago organizing a search of Trump’s property in Bedminster, New Jersey, for possible additional classified documents, and that he had blocked a defense strategy intended to help to “educate (Attorney General) Merrick. Garland on how best to handle this matter.” Parlatore co-authored a letter last month to the chairman of the House intelligence committee outlining a number of possible defenses in the investigation.
“It’s hard enough fighting the DOJ, and in this case a special counsel, but when you also have people inside the tent who are also trying to undermine you and block you and really make it so that I can’t do what I know . I have to play lawyer,” Parlatore said.
“And when I’m getting into fights like this, that takes away from what it takes to defend the client, and ultimately it wasn’t in the best interest of the client, so I made the decision to step down,” he added.
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