Trump advisers 'dismayed' by ousting his 'single most competent attorney'

Rolling Stone reported Friday that Drew Findling, known as the "Billion Dollar Lawyer," is the latest attorney to leave former President Donald Trump's legal team.

Rolling Stone notes that Findling's departure is being met with "dismay," and is leaving Trump World confused about whether the legal team was in disarray again.

"Several high-ranking members of Team Trump [asked] one another why the ex-president would ditch someone who was internally viewed as perhaps Trump’s single most competent attorney," said Rolling Stone. "Findling was in the middle of leading the legal defense against the one prosecution that is likely the most perilous for Trump — and the lawyer was replaced just as the former president was about to have his historic mug shot taken in Georgia."

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Three sources with information about the departure told Rolling Stone that it was all about the "same kind of power struggles that have long plagued Trump’s legal teams, even (or, especially) during times when Trump is trying his hardest to stay out of prison."

In the past, several lawyers left due to internal battles with longtime Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn. The longtime Trump ally is both a strategist and sometimes serves as "in-house counsel." But he has been responsible for several lawyers leaving and being side-lined.

In one case, Trump's legal team suffered under bitterness and mistrust toward Epshteyn. The Guardian revealed that the relationship curdled so badly that some lawyers agreed to a pact where if one attorney was fired, the rest would quit in solidarity.

In a 2022 report, Politico revealed that Epshteyn has frustrated Florida attorney Chris Kise by pressing for a more aggressive attack on federal prosecutors in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, but sources close to Trump's legal team told Politico he's being ill-served by Epshteyn's pugilistic approach.

This spring, Tim Parlatore resigned from the legal team, also citing Epshteyn. The Trump lawyer said that Epshteyn made his life a lot more difficult in trying to do his job, particularly when it came to searching other Trump locations for documents. Epshteyn specifically didn't want Parlatore to search Bedminster, a Trump property in New Jersey, and Parlatore never knew why, he told CNN in an interview.

"So, good luck because Boris is a moron," former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told MSNBC's Katie Phang in July.

But according to one of the recent Trump sources, the latest fights with Trump surfaced because "Boris did not control him."

One of the things Findling was supposed to prevent was Fulton County prosecutors going after a sprawling racketeering indictment with many of Trump's allies, the report explained. It clearly didn't work.

Findling clashed with Epshteyn too.

“It was pretty well known,” one of the Rolling Stone sources said. Findling was out as of August and the Trump team is searching for yet another Atlanta lawyer.

Read the full report at Rolling Stone.