Trump’s chief attorney is leaving the legal team as the investigation into the Mar-a-Lago documents intensifies
ERIC TUCKERMay 17, 2023
A key attorney for Donald Trump said Wednesday he is leaving the former president’s legal team, a move that comes as a special counsel investigation into the preservation of classified documents shows signs that it is in its final stages.
Timothy Parlatore told the Associated Press that his departure had nothing to do with Trump and was not a reflection of his view of the Justice Department’s investigation, which he long called misguided and overly aggressive, or of the strength of the evidence of the Justice Department. government. He said he believed he had served Trump well.
Other attorneys, including former Justice Department prosecutor James Trusty, continue to represent Trump in Washington investigations.
CNN previously reported Parlatores’ departure.
Parlatore has long been a key member of the team representing Trump in an investigation by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith into the presence of hundreds of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s home in Florida, and to possible attempts to hinder that monster.
A grand jury has heard from a wide variety of witnesses close to Trump in recent months. Federal prosecutors questioned another Trump attorney, M. Evan Corcoran, before the grand jury in March after he successfully violated attorney-client privilege. Parlatore voluntarily testified in December about efforts to recover classified documents in response to government demands.
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Last month, Parlatore and other Trump lawyers sent a letter to House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Turner, in which they laid out a series of defense arguments from Trump and said the Justice Department should be ordered to withdraw from its investigation.
In addition to the Mar-a-Lago probe, Smith has also been investigating attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, with former Vice President Mike Pence among the grand jury’s witnesses in that probe. Prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Trump in March over hush money payments to a porn star who said she had had a sexual encounter with him years earlier.
In Georgia, prosecutors in Fulton County are expected to release the results of an investigation into efforts to undermine Trump’s election loss to President Biden in that state in the coming months.

Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.