One of the most fun games to play in Trump world, besides Connect The Dots is Read Between The Lines. All kinds of exercise in inductive reasoning can be had when you hang out in Trump world and all the legal cases that are open in it. One of the seismic waves of last week was the sudden resignation of Tim Parlatore, one of the “legitimate” Trump lawyers. We find out now that this resignation was made necessary because of the stonewalling of one of Trump’s not so legitimate lawyers, Boris Epshteyn.
Parlatore on why he resigned says it didn’t have anything to do with the case itself, but that certain individuals made defending trump much harder than it needed to be. In particular: Boris Epshteyn.
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) May 20, 2023
Parlatore told @PaulaReidCNN he was NOT subpoenaed by Jack Smith. Recent CNN reporting says otherwise. He says he not a material witness and therefore his resignation has nothing to do with being a potential witness. He says he offered to give more testimony and Smith said no.
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) May 20, 2023
Mr. Parlatore also mocked Mr. Epshteyn’s limited legal experience, saying he spent 18 months as a corporate lawyer and that based on that experience, he “knows better than all of us.”
Still, Mr. Parlatore left open the possibility of returning to Mr. Trump’s legal team if certain changes were made.
“If the lawyers are allowed to be lawyers without obstruction from people like Boris Epshteyn,” he said, “I would be happy to go back.”
A spokesperson for Mr. Trump said, “Mr. Parlatore is no longer a member of the legal team. His statements regarding current members of the legal team are unfounded and categorically false.”
Before making his appearance on TV, Mr. Parlatore spoke with Mr. Trump, telling him that Mr. Epshteyn’s handling of the defense team increased the risk that federal prosecutors would file charges, according to two people familiar with the matter.
That warning came after an earlier attempted intervention by several of Mr. Trump’s lawyers with their client over Mr. Epshteyn’s involvement. The lawyers cited what they described as Mr. Epshteyn’s penchant for delivering good news despite grim circumstances, as well as a bottleneck he had created in talking with Mr. Trump about cases.
In other words, Epshteyn is there to lie and whitewash, not to actually advise or be an asset. And Trump is the kind of person who values yes-men and sycophants as opposed to people who will level with him and be honest.
News of the dissension among the lawyers representing Mr. Trump emerged at an especially delicate moment — just as the Justice Department’s special counsel, Jack Smith, appears to be wrapping up his sprawling grand jury investigations and approaching a decision about whether to file indictments against Mr. Trump in the documents and election interference cases.
With Mr. Parlatore gone, two other lawyers — James Trusty and John Rowley — have taken the lead in representing Mr. Trump in the special counsel’s inquiries.
Epshteyn has been around Trump world for quite some time and not necessarily as a lawyer. Not in the least. His main function is as one of the right-wing allies, part of the Stephen Miller/Sebastian Gorka cabal, which makes sure that their own interests are protected and nobody is even certain about the nature and extent of those interests. Donald Trump better get some clarity, because this is a heads up to him, in no uncertain terms, that his hard core right-wing pals may end up becoming far more of a hindrance than a help.
And here’s a thought and not an original one: has it occurred to Trump that maybe the likes of Epshteyn, Gorka, Miller and that crowd may be answering to a higher authority than Trump? Maybe he’s part of their plan, not the other way around. Who is pulling whose strings? That’s a takeaway from Parlatore’s resignation, whether he came right out and framed it that way or not.
There are US documents buried with Ivana. Watch…
I have thought so from day one. How interesting that the driver/bodyguard calamari was on the scene at ivana’s apt. Right after her tumble down the stairs that only caused damage to her abdomen according to reports. I thought it to be instinctive that one reaches out to stop the fall. You would think there would have been bruises on her arms shoulders face… He, and then the way that she was interred so very very quickly on private property.
It’s clear trump handles his lawyer team just about as competently as he did his White House staff, which is to say he creates an everyone-for-him/herself melee with a generous helping of chaos. In the Reid interview, Parlatore doesn’t just throw Epshteyn under the bus, he takes the keys and does a back-and-forth to fully squish Boris into the asphalt. Basically he’s telling Jack Smith, “Here’s your guy. Peel him off and prosecute him for obstruction.”
I wouldn’t put anything past this soulless nazi.