WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer who left Donald Trump’s legal team last week attributed his decision Saturday to strategic disagreements with a close aide to the former president.
Timothy Parlatorewho had been a key attorney for Trump in an investigation by the Justice Department’s special counsel Possible misuse of classified documents at his Florida propertyCNN said in an interview on Saturday that there were “certain individuals who made defending the president much more difficult than it needed to be.”
He singled out Boris Epshteyn, another attorney and a senior Trump adviser in several criminal investigations, who he accused of “doing everything he could to try to block us, to stop us from doing everything.” ‘Whatever we could to defend the President’.
Parlatore announced on Wednesday that he was stepping down from Trump’s legal team, a move that comes as the investigation continues Special Counsel Jack Smith There are signs the trial is slowing and a decision is nearing whether or not to bring charges against the former president. His comments from Saturday provided additional context for the decision.
Commenting on 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 served as a “filter” to prevent the legal department from receiving information about the investigation on or from Trump.
He also said Epshteyn resisted the idea that the legal team months ago organized a search of Trump’s Bedminster, NJ, home for potentially other classified documents, and that he had obstructed a defense strategy aimed at “(Attorney General ) Merrick.” Garland on how best to handle this matter.” Parlatore co-authored a letter to the chair of the House Intelligence Committee last month, outlining a number of possible defenses for the probe.
“It’s hard enough fighting the Justice Department, and in this case a special counsel, but when you also have people in the tent trying to undermine you, block you and really make it so that I can what I know I can’t do. “I have to work as a lawyer,” Parlatore said.
“And getting involved in such disputes interferes with what is necessary to defend the client and ultimately was not in the client’s best interests. That’s why I decided to retire,” he added.