Former President Donald Trump announced that he will replace two of his attorneys following his federal indictment Friday, the Daily Caller reported. Jim Trusty and John Rowley tendered their resignation amid another round of legal woes for the former president.
"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," Trump posted on his Truth Social. "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," the former president added.
"We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days," Trump said. The two lawyers released their own joint statement outlining their reasons for parting.
"This morning, we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation," Trusty and Rowley two wrote. "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," they predicted.
"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," the statement from Trusty and Rowley continued. "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."
On Thursday, Trump made the announcement that the Department of Justice had contacted him about his forthcoming federal indictment. This is an unprecedented move, as no former president has ever been charged with a federal crime.
This latest legal development for Trump comes after Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump's handling of classified materials. An FBI raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in August turned up the documents in question.
In his defense, Trump claimed that his right as president to declassify materials just by "thinking about it" negates the government's charges. He has called the investigation "political" and asserted on Truth Social Monday a "witch hunt" following a meeting between the DOJ and his lawyers.
However, federal prosecutors claimed Friday to have Trump on a recording stating he knew he was in possession of classified documents from the Pentagon. The question still remains whether Trump had indeed declassified the documents prior to leaving office.
This indictment comes as Trump is embroiled in several concurrent criminal cases, The New York Times reported. He was indicted in New York in April on charges related to supposed hush money paid to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
He's also under investigation for alleged election interference in Georgia after his phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to "find 11,780 votes" following the 2020 presidential election. An indictment in that case is expected to be announced in August.
Trump could also face charges stemming from his alleged role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol. A House committee investigation concluded in December and recommended the Department of Justice press charges, though it's unclear when that will happen.
Prior to these most recent investigations, Trump was the subject of a phony Russia collusion hoax and later a quid pro quo scandal with Ukraine, Fox News reported. Both turned out to be worthless, but it seems it has only motivated Trump's political enemies to try harder.
There may be a time when one of these investigations results in an actual conviction. However, short of a smoking gun on any one of these pending cases, it's undeniable that the former president is being unfairly targeted by his political adversaries -- and that's disgraceful.
