Two lawyers who previously represented Donald Trump would no longer be working for him in the wake of his federal indictment, the former president announced Friday.
“For purposes of fighting the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time, now moving to the Florida Courts, I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later. 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. We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trusty and Rowley wrote in s joint statement that they had resigned at this “logical moment” and would also not be representing him in the Jan. 6 case, CNBC News reported.
“This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation,” the two wrote, according to the outlet. “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.”
“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,” Trusty and Rowley added. “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.”
Trump announced Thursday that the DOJ informed him of being indicted in relation to the handling of documents. The indictment marks the first time a former president has been charged with a federal crime. In April, he was indicted by a New York-based grand jury on 34 counts related to allegedly falsifying business records. (RELATED: Trump Pleads Not Guilty To 34 Charges, Indictment Unsealed)
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith in November to investigate Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Prosecutors working for Smith were presenting evidence to a federal grand jury for months. Trump lawyers were spotted entering the Justice Department on Monday and the former president’s legal team requested to meet with Garland in a letter May 24.
Trump has maintained that he did nothing wrong in storing documents at his Florida residence, arguing that he had the authority to declassify documents while he was president by “thinking about it.” He has labeled the DOJ’s investigation as “political” and posted an all-caps message on Truth Social Monday after his lawyers went to the DOJ, calling it a “witch hunt.”
Federal prosecutors obtained an audio recording allegedly showing Trump saying he knew he possessed a classified Pentagon document, CNN reported Friday.
The FBI seized hundreds of items from Mar-a-Lago in August after the DOJ suspected Trump did not turn over all the classified documents in his possession in June. The seized items included hundreds of items of “magazine/newspapers/press articles and other printed media,” along with hundreds of government documents, with some bearing classification markings.