![]() ![]() In late April, Parlatore and other involved attorneys were barred from doing media appearances specifically about a letter they drafted to the House Intelligence Committee telling Congress that the Justice Department “should be ordered to stand down” from its classified documents probe in favor of an investigation by the intelligence committee. One of these intra-legal-team fights with Epshteyn was over, of all things, television appearances. ![]() Trump Refuses to Commit to Debate Appearance On ‘Hostile’ Fox News In response to this reporting, a person close to Trump’s legal team simply notes: “Boris is absolutely focused on protecting President Trump from every angle - legal, political, and media.” In particular, there is one individual who works for him, Boris Epshteyn, who had really done everything he could to try to block us - to prevent us from doing what we could to defend the president.”įurthermore, prior to the recent exodus, some of Trump’s lawyers would regularly trash Epshteyn behind his back, at times using various derisive nicknames such as “Porous” Epshteyn, related to their private suspicions that he was leaking material to the press, and “Boris Inept-shteyn.” Reached for comment, Parlatore referred Rolling Stone to his comments to CNN’s Paula Reid last month, which included the attorney saying, “There are certain individuals that made defending the president much harder than it needed to be. Sorry.” Rowley, Blanche, and Epshteyn did not immediately provide comment on this story. He wrote on Monday, “I don’t plan on being a kiss and tell kind of guy. In an email, Trusty declined to comment to Rolling Stone. Other attorneys on the team objected, arguing that it constituted a conflict of interest, due to Blanche already serving as Epshteyn’s attorney. One reason this caused such tension was because Blanche was viewed as loyal to Epshteyn, who had pushed Trump to make Blanche lead counsel on the case. Some of Trump’s legal team had also been angered by what one person familiar with the matter describes as a soft “coup” among the core team, with a different Trump lawyer, Todd Blanche, in the past several weeks being given a larger portfolio and more influence over this specific team long before the announcement of his ascension. “Why the fuck would a judge want to be bothered with that?” says one of the sources, summarizing the legal team’s frustrations at the time. At one point, Epshteyn inserted Trump’s dominance in the 2024 Republican primary into a draft of a court filing meant only for a judge. The duo often complained that Epshteyn was unqualified to oversee their defense of Trump, and, sources say, they were baffled by edits the adviser made to their legal work. They, like Parlatore before them, would often chafe at Epshteyn’s influence over their work. ![]() Epshteyn has overseen Trump’s various legal defenses - and also found himself the target of investigations: His cellphone was seized by federal authorities investigating the Trump team’s efforts to keep him in power after his 2020 election defeat.Ĭlashes with Epshteyn had Rowley and Trusty eyeing their exits for weeks before their departure, according to three sources familiar with the situation. On the other side of the long-brewing conflict was Boris Epshteyn, one of the former president’s most prominent legal advisers. The resignations followed last month’s departure of Tim Parlatore, another Trump attorney who decided he’d seen enough of the internal turmoil. The clashes were dramatic enough that Friday, hours before Trump’s federal indictment in the Mar-a-Lago documents probe was unsealed, top lawyers John Rowley and Jim Trusty abruptly resigned. Right up until the day Donald Trump’s federal indictment was unsealed, the legal team tasked with defending him was engaged in petty internal feuds - including fights over TV appearances, accusations of disloyalty, and even a so-called “coup,” three people familiar with the situation, as well as others on or close to Trump’s legal defense, tell Rolling Stone. ![]()
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