As the legal jeopardy surrounding Donald Trump continues to pile up, the former president is having a hard time hanging onto lawyers. Last week, Trump attorney Jim Trusty resigned from the team handling Trump’s classified documents indictment, and now, Trusty has bailed on the former president’s legal matters altogether.
Trusty filed a petition to withdraw from Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN, and the attorney used language typically reserved for a divorce to justify his exit.
“Mr. Trusty’s withdrawal is based upon irreconcilable differences between Counsel and Plaintiff and Counsel can no longer effectively and properly represent Plaintiff,” Trusty wrote in the legal filing.
Of course, Trusty’s resignation isn’t exactly a surprising development. Recent reports claim Trump routinely ignored the advice of his legal counsel and chose to take a combative approach with the Department of Justice instead of pursuing a peaceful settlement with Attorney General Merrick Garland. Trump has been obsessed with keeping his “boxes” and his refusal to return documents to the government earned him a federal indictment in Miami.
Frustrating Trump’s lawyers even more is the fact that the former president was taking advice from political activist Tom Fitton, who has no legal background whatsoever. Plus, Trump is a notoriously awful client.
“Donald Trump is a very difficult client,” former Trump attorney Joseph diGenova recently told Newsmax. “I know the president. I’ve dealt with him. He’s a very stubborn man. He has a tendency to think he’s always right.”
(Via CNN)