Nasty infighting and a brutal indictment led to Trump parting ways with “one of the finest lawyers I’ve ever dealt with,” says one Atlanta defense attorney
LAST MONTH, WHEN Donald Trump parted ways with “Billion Dollar Lawyer” Drew Findling as his lead criminal defense attorney in the Fulton County, Georgia, case, the decision was then met with surprise and dismay, including among some of Trump’s closest advisers and lawyers.
According to three sources with knowledge of the matter, the high-profile departure was largely driven by 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. Those problems only intensified when it became clear that Fulton County prosecutors were going to pursue a wide-ranging indictment of Trump and many of his confidants; it was the kind of nightmare scenario that Findling, well-known for his successful defenses of Cardi B and Offset, was hired to attempt to prevent.
The sources say that the problems stemmed in part from the tensions between Boris Epstheyn, a senior advisor to Trump who has also acted as an in-house counsel to the former president throughout the various criminal cases against him, and Findling.
Findling represented a smart choice for defending Trump in the Fulton County conspiracy case. A former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, he has represented a number of celebrity clients in Atlanta facing charges under Georgia’s RICO and conspiracy statutes, including rapper YFN Lucci.