Former President Donald Trump announced that two of his top attorneys, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, have resigned less than a day after news broke that Trump faces a federal indictment.
The news was a surprise, as Trusty made several national news appearances late Thursday and Friday morning. Trump said that Todd Blanche and a firm to be named later will represent him moving forward.
“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.” Trump saidon his Truth Social account.
Trusty spent the last day staunchly defending Trump’s innocence. The case involves Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Last August, officials said federal agents seized dozens of classified documents, some being top secret, from his residence.
“This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation,” Trusty and Rowley said in a joint statement. “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.”
Why prosecutors are choosing South Florida to try Donald Trump
Prosecutors could have gotten a more favorable jury pool elsewhere but would have faced enormous risk had they chosen Washington, D.C., for the venue.
While Trump has not denied having the documents, he has claimed the documents were declared unclassified before he left office.
"I know all attorneys go on the air and say my client's innocent and then after the trial, we're going to win the appeal. Well, here, he is innocent. I mean, everything about this case is absolutely rotten,” Trusty told CNN late Thursday. “The misconduct that we've documented for an attorney general who hides behind Jack Smith."
Smith is the independent special counsel selected by the Justice Department to oversee the case.
