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Former US president Donald Trump’s legal woes go beyond the dozens of state and federal charges against him — he’s having trouble finding qualified lawyers willing to help him wage his various courtroom battles.
With his history of ignoring legal advice and his bills, it’s not hard to see why.
On Friday, attorney Jim Trusty submitted a request to withdraw from Trump’s defamation suit against CNN, citing “irreconcilable differences” with his client.
The move came just one week after Trusty and another lawyer, John Rowley, decided to resign from Trump’s legal team in the matter of classified documents he is accused of illegally storing at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump had stubbornly refused to return classified documents as his lawyers had recommended to minimize the legal fallout after boxes of the papers were discovered in his Florida resort. According to The Washington Post, Trump instead took legal advice from Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative group Judicial Watch. Fitton is not a lawyer, but reportedly convinced Trump he could fight the Justice Department’s efforts to see the documents returned to their rightful home.
Rowley and Trusty’s decision to quit the federal case had Trump scrambling to find new representation, interviewing attorneys with just hours to go before his arraignment this week, according to The Washington Post.
Trump pleaded not guilty on 37 felony counts on Tuesday, represented in Miami federal court by attorneys Chris Kise and Todd Blanche.
The charges came two months after he was arraigned on 34 criminal counts in New York state relating to hush money paid to actor Stormy Daniels.
The former president had sued CNN in October 2022, alleging that his cable news nemesis perpetuated “a campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” ahead of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid — in part by comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
He also took issue with terms like “racist”, “insurrectionist” and “Russian lackey”.
Trump is seeking $475 million in the defamation suit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Florida attorney Lindsey Halligan is expected to continue to represent Trump in the matter.
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