Donald Trump's advisers are threatening to ruin one of his former attorney's reputations after he revealed infighting among his legal team on the way out the door.
Defense attorney Tim Parlatore appeared earlier this month on CNN, where he discussed the disagreements that led to his departure, and Trump's advisers are furious that he disclosed longtime adviser Boris Epshteyn's role in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents coverup -- which they feel could implicate them, reported The Daily Beast.
“He basically called into question the legal team’s ethical guidelines,” said one source briefed on the situation. “So everyone who stayed…he put everyone in a very bad position.”
Parlatore told CNN that Epshteyn “served as kind of a filter" between the legal team and Trump, and believes he lied to both the attorneys and the former president, and three sources familiar with internal discussions told The Daily Beast this was received back at Mar-a-Lago as a betrayal.
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“He puts himself out there, goes on TV and motherf*cks people,” said one of these sources. “To say Boris is obstructing — who gets hurt there? Trump gets hurt there. That’s a serious, serious, true ethical violation. It’s a f*cked-up thing to do.”
Trump's inner circle wish Parlatore had kept quiet unless he was ordered to testify under oath by federal investigators, who've been questioning the defense team, even if they shared his apparent disregard for Epshteyn.
“I agree that Boris is an assh*le,” said another Trump lawyer. “But I’ve never seen anybody quit and go on TV and discuss attorney-client matters. That’s pretty crazy. Do I think it was completely inappropriate? Of course!”
Parlatore told The Daily Beast that he'd gone after Epshteyn on TV to extinguish rumors that he quit after being targeted by the feds and insisted that he might flip on the former president and turn into a cooperating witness.
“Nobody has discussed this with me, and I hope any professional attorney would beforehand,” Parlatore said. “I am completely and totally confident with the ethics and everything I’ve done in this case – and my departure. I was talking about Boris’ obstruction of other attorneys doing their job. I didn’t implicate anyone in any wrongdoing.”
Trump's presidential campaign called Parlatore's comments "unfounded and categorically false," but some of Trump's confidantes are considering a bar complaint alleging a breach of attorney-client privilege that could drag on behind the scenes at length -- but one lawyer familiar with the situation said that could actually free him from additional attorney-client obligations.
