Attorney Timothy Parlatore leaves U.S. District Court on December 22, 2022 in Washington, DC
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A lawyer who quit Donald Trump’s legal team last week attributed his Saturday decision to a strategic disagreement with a close adviser to the former president.
Timothy Parlatore, who was Trump’s lead lawyer in the Justice Department special counsel’s investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate, told CNN in an interview on Saturday , “certain people are making the president’s defense more difficult than it needs to be.”
He singled out Boris Epshteyn, another lawyer and Trump’s top adviser in multiple criminal investigations, who accused Epshteyn of “doing everything in his power to try to stop us from , to prevent us from doing everything we can to defend the President.”
Parlatore revealed on Wednesday that he would resign from Trump’s legal team, a move that comes as special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation shows signs of ending and a decision on whether to press charges against the former president is near. His comments on Saturday provided more 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 baseless and absolutely false.”
Parlatore said in an interview that Epshteyn acted as a “filter” in preventing the legal team from getting information from Trump about the investigation.
He also said Epshteyn objected to the legal team’s idea months ago to organize a search of Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., property for possible other classified documents, and that he stymied efforts aimed at helping “education (the Attorney General’s) ) Merrick’s defensive strategy Garland as to how best to handle this. Parlatore was one of the authors of a letter to the chairmen of the House Intelligence Committee last month outlining a range of potential defenses in the investigation.
“It’s hard enough fighting the DOJ, in this case a special prosecutor, but when you’re in a tent and someone is trying to sabotage you, stop you and really do it so I can’t do it I know what I need as a lawyer,” Parlatore said.
He added: “When I get involved in an argument like this, it diminishes the need to defend the client and ultimately it’s not in the client’s best interest, so I’ve decided to back out.”