Donald Trump's legal team reportedly has so much internal conflict that it could actually hinder its ability to defend the former president for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
The infighting began soon after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago last August, but the division only came to light when Trump's lawyer Tim Parlatore abruptly quit two weeks ago. Parlatore's main reason for leaving was irreconcilable differences with Trump's senior adviser and in-house counsel, Boris Epshteyn.
Most of the problems stem from a lack of trust on the team, The Guardian reported Thursday. The lawyers don't trust each other and especially not Epshteyn, because they felt he micromanaged them and blocked direct access to Trump.
Some of the lawyers reportedly agreed to quit in solidarity if Parlatore were fired. Parlatore and another lawyer, Jim Trusty, disliked Epshteyn so much that they began withholding information from him.
Trusty chafed at having to run all of his decisions by Epshteyn first, according to a Guardian reporter who overheard him complaining last August. Trusty felt Epshteyn was not a trial lawyer and focused too much on Trump's P.R. issues, not legal ones.
Parlatore has accused Epstein of attempting to block searches of Trump's properties for classified documents. And both Parlatore and Trusty were frustrated by the fact that Epshteyn was usually included in any phone calls with Trump. They felt Epshteyn was misleading Trump about the state of the lawsuit.
It got to the point that the pair began withholding information from Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran because they worried he would brief Epshteyn without their knowledge. But that hobbled the team's ability to build a defense, as the different factions had no clue what the others were doing.
Parlatore and Corcoran have since testified in front of the grand jury investigating Trump's decision to keep classified documents. Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation, also interviewed Epstein in April.