'Emotional support animal to the president': Key Trump ally enters plea in Arizona

Lawyer Boris Epshteyn is among Donald Trump's longest-serving advisers, and now he's fighting his own legal battles as he enters a "not guilty" plea in an Arizona court.

In a New York Times profile on Epshteyn, the Trump shadow is described as one who typically leaves the spotlight to his boss — but, with new charges in Arizona, he's getting a leading role for the first time.

The Times wrote that while "shepherding a small group of advisers, he helped oversee a plan to deploy fake electors in seven battleground states lost" in 2020.

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“Boris does two things,” ex-Trump lawyer Timothy Parlatore told the Times. “He coordinates the legal teams and he acts as an emotional support animal to the president. He’s Mr. Good News. He loves telling the president what he wants to hear. And he does that in a way so that he can maintain control over the legal teams — to the president’s detriment, in my opinion.”

Parlatore complained after leaving the legal team that Epshteyn was hurting Trump's defense more than helping.

Epshteyn is named as "Individual 3" in the Georgia election interference case and "Individual A" in another case in Wisconsin, court records show. The federal case pending in Washington, D.C. calls the Trump adviser "Person 5."

However, the Times said that Epshteyn is also considered “Co-conspirator 6" in another federal case.

Thus far, he's had his cell phone seized by the FBI and spoken with federal investigators twice.

As he pleaded not guilty to election interference charges in Arizona Tuesday, Epshteyn is one of 18 people charged in that state, including Trump's former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and his ex-White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

In a 2021 podcast Epshteyn confessed he was dispatched to Arizona within 36 hours after a key Oval Office meeting on Nov. 4, 2020.

Far-right propagandist Steve Bannon called Epshteyn a “wartime consigliere,” while Trump "jokingly" refers to him as “my psychiatrist.”

Legal experts have alleged that Epshteyn is the link between the ex-president and his allies in the states helping enact the fake electors' plot directly.

However, the Times profile details a sordid history of litigation and headlines leading into his Trump life.

It begins with Epshteyn's family's move to the United States from Moscow. He attended Georgetown University with Trump's son Eric and became a surrogate during the 2016 campaign. He's obsessed with the "Rocky" franchise. Unlike most of Trump's early team, Epshteyn did "a stint on the McCain-Palin campaign."

The piece bounces through the long history of short jobs including Epshteyn failing to save a cancer charity and working briefly for Carl Paladino, who tried to run for governor of New York.

Paladino later trashed Epshteyn as “totally useless,” though there are staffers who disagree.

"In 2016, an investment firm Mr. Epshteyn was affiliated with, TGP Securities, was sued by a Texas company called Sigma Development Corporation," the report said. "The plaintiff alleged that Mr. Epshteyn and a business partner had accepted an initial $100,000 payment to help find investors for a theme park. According to the suit, Mr. Epshteyn did little more than brag about his Republican Party connections and urged the plaintiffs to watch clips of his TV appearances. TGP disputed the allegations and a settlement was ultimately reached."

Epshteyn is a significant piece of the fake electors' plot.

His salary from Trump has grown to $53,500 per month for "coordinating" the legal teams, the Times wrote.

“He’s up to snuff on everything that’s going on," said Steve Sadow, Trump's Georgia lawyer.

Read the full profile here.