After former President Donald Trump was indicted in Florida on Thursday, two of his attorneys resigned.
Attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley said in a statement that they will no longer represent Trump in the criminal case involving sensitive documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after he departed the White House, nor in the investigation that began on January 6.
Trump Lawyers Resign
Trusty and Rowley said in a statement, "It has been an honor to spend 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 lodged in Miami, it is reasonable for us to stand aside and allow others to see it through to a conclusion.
Per CBS News, the duo stated that they "have no intentions to address our withdrawals or any other confidential communications with the president or his legal team during media appearances."
Trump announced in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he will now be represented by attorney Todd Blanche and "a firm to be named later." Trump is also represented by Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, in the criminal case launched against him in New York related to hush money payments.
Trump thanked Trusty and Rowley for their efforts, adding that "they were up against an unprecedentedly dishonest, corrupt, vile, and sick group of individuals."
Friday saw the unsealing of the 37-count indictment filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The indictment, which identifies former aide Walt Nauta as a co-conspirator, states that the former president "attempted to obstruct FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal retention of classified documents."
Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents
The filing includes numerous images of what appear to be bankers' boxes, some of which contained highly confidential national documents and were relocated erratically at Trump's request.
Some of the boxes appear to be collapsing, and on December 7, 2021, Nauta discovered that one of the boxes had fallen and its contents had overflowed onto the floor.
The folders strewn across the carpet were labeled "SECRET/REL TO USA, FVEY," indicating that they were intended for officials with high-level security credentials from the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.
Tuesday afternoon, Trump is expected to appear in Federal District Court in Miami. The initial hearing is scheduled to be presided over by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, according to sources familiar with the matter.
It was unclear whether Judge Cannon, who was criticized by a higher court for granting Trump an unusually favorable series of rulings in the early phases of the investigation, would remain assigned for the duration of the case.
This is the first incident that a former president has been indicted by a federal grand jury. It places the nation in an extraordinary position, given that Trump is not only a former commander-in-chief but also the current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination against President Joe Biden, whose administration will now seek to convict his potential opponent of multiple felonies.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump continued to agitate against the indictment, labeling it the "greatest witch hunt of all time," according to NY Times.
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