Donald Trump's hunt for "killers" for his criminal defense team has led him into talks with an attorney who represented an accused war criminal.
The twice-impeached former president and his advisers have spent the summer compiling a shortlist of defense attorneys to represent him against potential charges by the Department of Justice, and he has had preliminary discussions with Tim Parlatore, who is best known for representing retired Navy SEAL and alleged war criminal Eddie Gallagher, reported Rolling Stone.
Parlatore has previously represented Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano after he was asked to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, and he has represented former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik in his interactions with the House select committee and when he was convicted in 2009 on federal tax fraud charges.
The former president and Parlatore have discussed the possibility of federal charges against him, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks, and Trump has referred to the attorney as "a killer" -- his highest praise for lawyers and businesspeople -- who helped the "warrior" Gallagher beat his charges.
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Parlatore is technically a member of Trump's legal team already who has helped look for ties between Joe Biden's campaign and a group of 51 former intelligence professionals who tried to downplay the Hunter Biden laptop story in an October 2020 letter.
Trump has also enlisted attorneys John Rowley and Evan Corcoran to negotiate executive privilege matters with the Justice Department team investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, and Corcoran has been mentioned as a potential defense attorney if federal prosecutors bring criminal charges against him.
Corcoran is a white-collar criminal defense attorney who has represented Steve Bannon in his contempt of Congress case, and he also represented U.S. Capitol police officer Michael Angelo Riley, who was charged with two counts of obstruction for telling two rioters to take down incriminating photos of themselves during the riot, and rioter Frank Scavo, who organized bus trips to the Capitol.