Attorney Jim Trusty has backed out of another Donald Trump legal suit — this time citing “irreconcilable” differences as he pulled out of a lawsuit against CNN.
The former president’s defamation lawsuit filed last October sought $475 million in damages and accused the network of promoting “an array of increasingly outrageous, false and slanderous labels from ‘racist’, ‘Russian lackey’, ‘insurgent ‘. and finally “Hitler.”
‘Mr. Trusty’s withdrawal is based on irreconcilable disagreements between counsel and plaintiff and counsel can no longer effectively and properly represent plaintiff,” Trusty wrote the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida.
The move followed the stunning announcement that Trusty and attorney John Rowley had resigned from Trump’s team last Friday, just hours after Trump was indicted on 37 counts. Since then, Trump has appeared in federal court in Florida where he pleaded not guilty to charges of willful withholding of national security information and charges of obstruction and conspiracy.
Attorney Jim Trusty pulled out of representing Donald Trump in his lawsuit against CNN. He and John Rowley announced they were resigning from the defense hours after Trump was indicted
The Trump camp said the CNN case “enters a new phase as more irrefutable facts are revealed.” We thank Mr. Trusty for his work on this case and wish him all the best.” Politicos report on the declaration.
The filing also stated that Trusty’s move “has no adverse effect” on parties to the case, where pleas had not yet been scheduled.
When Trump appeared for his landmark indictment on Tuesday, attorneys Chris Kise and Todd Blanche were in court, while Bedminister, New Jersey-based attorney Alina Habba challenged the accuser from outside the courtroom.
Trump has had other media lawsuits, including one for $10 million against the New York Times, dismissed, such as happened in May.
Alina Habba, attorney for former President Donald Trump, this week condemned the prosecution out of federal court in Miami
Jim Trusty and John Rowley announced their withdrawal from the documents case last week, shortly after Trump posted a message thanking them for their work and saying he would announce “additional attorneys” in the coming days — without saying who they were or why the couple left.
“This morning we tendered our resignation as counsel for President Trump, and we will no longer be representing him in the January 6 indictment or investigation,” Trusty and Rowley said, without further explanation of the reasons.
“It has been an honor to have defended him this past year, and we know he will be vindicated in his fight against the Biden administration’s partisan arming of the American justice system,” they said.
When he was president, there were frequent disputes between Trump and his aides over whether they resigned or were pushed out, and there are suggestions that Trump was angry with the way they handled the matter and that he was blindsided by the indictment
It was just one of the stunning twists last week, when Trump aide and former “bodyman” Walt Nauta was indicted in the same investigation over classified documents.
Their departure is just the latest legal shake-up involving Trump, who has continued to be cycled by lawyers as he faced multiple investigations related to classified documents, “silence” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, January 6, his attempts to win the election in Georgia, and his business dealings in New York.
He continues to seek additional counsel in Florida for the documents case.
“With the Miami case filed, now is a logical time for us to step aside and let others bring the case to completion,” they wrote. “We do not intend to make any media appearances about our withdrawals or any other confidential communications we have had with the president or his legal team,” they wrote when announcing their move.
Trusty, a Washington, D.C. attorney with experience in RICO cases, had vehemently defended Trump just hours before, during a Friday appearance where he clashed with host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”
In that appearance, he accused Biden of “authorizing” the Justice Department to try to sink his political rival, something Stephanopoulos said was not the case. He also charged prosecutors with “criminal activity” and extortion on Thursday night.
The departures of Trump lawyers James Trusty, left, and John Rowley, right, were just one of last week’s dramatic developments. They announced that they were no longer representing him in the Jan. 6 documentary investigation or case
Trusty defended Trump on air and attacked President Biden and prosecutors hours before saying he was stepping down
Trump said he would be represented “by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later,” in reference to an attorney who represented him in the Stormy Daniels case
Former U.S. First Lady Melania Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York City’s Manhattan on June 8, 2023, on a day when it was revealed that her husband had been charged in an investigation of classified documents
Trump wrote on Friday after previously posting an angry video and reports about the allegations, “For the fight against the greatest witch hunt of all time, which now moves to the Florida courts, I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later. I want to thank Jim Trusty and John Rowley for their work, but they had to go up against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil and ‘sick’ group of people, the likes of which has never been seen before. We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days. When will Joe Biden be indicted for his many crimes against our nation? MAGA!
Blanche is representing Trump in the Stormy Daniels case, with a trial set for March during the presidential campaign.
Blanche is a former U.S. Attorney at the Manhattan U.S. Law Firm. He is a seasoned white-collar lawyer who announced in April that he was leaving his firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft to represent Trump in the New York case.
On a fiery TV appearance Thursday night, Trusty claimed federal prosecutors “extorted” a key witness’ lawyer and is demanding an internal communications investigation to find out what happened.
That came in a TV spot that suggested he might have a hunch that his status wasn’t fixed.
When asked who would represent Trump in a Florida courtroom, he said, “And we’ll see. It will be exciting to see who comes to the table on Tuesday, I think.
When asked if it wasn’t clear who would be for Trump, he replied, “Yeah, we’ll see where — we’ll see where it all goes.”
Trusty made up the allegations CNN hours after Trump was indicted on counts related to the retention of classified documents and a violation of the espionage law, he called it a “corrupt and politicized” process.
Next, Trusty went after federal prosecutor Jay Bratt, head of the DOJ’s National Security Division’s counterintelligence division, who last year urged a court to seal the affidavit that preceded a Mar-a-Lago search held secretly there. revealed material.
His accusations related to the lawyer of former bodyguard Walt Nauta, who served as a military aide to the president in the White House, and who was himself indicted Friday.
He reportedly moved boxes of documents around Mar-a-Lago around the time the FBI visited him to collect government materials.
Trusty suggested that federal prosecutors, while trying to line up witnesses who could help them defend their case against Trump, were trying to apply pressure by bringing forward a judicial office requested by Nauta’s attorney Stanley Woodward.
The conversation is said to have occurred when Bratt was speaking at a meeting with Woodward that the lawyer had applied for a DC judicial office with a solid resume. According to Trusty, prosecutors attempted to use the information as “extortion” leverage, merely bringing up the subject of the career jump Woodward had sought.
Appearing this week before the Miami grand jury investigating the case, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich praised Trusty in a 2022 Washington Post article about Trump’s struggle to find representation.
‘The president’s lead attorneys on the raid on his home, Jim Trusty and Evan Corcoran, have decades of experience as prosecutors and have litigated some of the most complex cases in American history,” he said at the time. “President Trump is represented by some of the strongest lawyers in the country, and any other suggestion is driven only by envy.”
In part of Trusty’s interview on Thursday night, he rambled about federal statutes Trump was accused of citing the U.S. Code — but he also seemed unsure if a conspiracy charge was one of them.
‘I believe so. I don’t have it in front of me right now,” he said directly when asked.
“Again, this is not biblically correct, because I am not looking at a loading document. I’m looking at a summary sheet. So there’s language in there that might reflect a single count, rather than two. But I think there was also a conspiracy,” he said.