Trump shakes up legal team in documents case after indictment

by Brett Samuels and Rebecca Beitsch - 06/09/23 11:35 AM ET

Former President Trump on Friday announced a significant change in his legal team representing him in the case of whether he mishandled classified documents, one day after he was indicted by the Justice Department.

Trump posted on Truth Social that he will be represented by attorney Todd Blanche moving forward, “and a firm to be named later.” Attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley will no longer represent Trump in the case, he said.

“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,” Trump wrote. “We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days. When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation? MAGA!”

More Trump indictment coverage from The Hill

Trusty appeared Thursday night on CNN to speak about the case, and he went on NBC’s “Today” show earlier Friday to discuss the indictment.

In a joint statement labeled “OUR DECISION” shortly after Trump’s announcement, the two attorneys said they would step away from representing the former president in either line of inquiry pursued by the Special Counsel.

“This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation.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,” they wrote.

“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.”

The move comes just weeks after another Trump attorney, Tim Parlatore, left the team working on the Mar-a-Lago case, citing issues with internal team dynamics. Parlatore later blamed Trump confidant Boris Epshteyn for interfering with the case.

“As I said at the time, it had nothing to do with the case itself or the client. There are certain individuals that made defending the president much harder than it needed to be,” Parlatore said at the time.

Blanche is currently representing Trump in a New York prosecution in connection with hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The New York-based attorney previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

Updated at 11:50 a.m.