Trump Picks Ex-Prosecutor to Rep Him in Mar-a-Lago Case

Tracy Connor

June 9, 2023 at 11:57 a.m.·1 min read

Donald Trump said the lawyer who will represent him in the Mar-a-Lago documents case is a former federal prosecutor who is already working on his Manhattan hush-money case.

“We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days,” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing Todd Blanche will head his defense. He also indicated two of his attorneys, James Trusty and John Rowland, would no longer be involved. (Trusty and Rowley resigned Friday morning in a joint letter, CNN reported.)

Trump also mentioned that he would be hiring “a firm to be named later.”

The legal shakeup comes a day after Trump was informed he's been indicted on seven federal charges, including willful retention of documents, obstruction, and false statements in connection with the classified documents that were seized from his Palm Beach home after he left the White House.

He has been summoned to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon.

Blanche, who was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York before going into private practice as a white-collar criminal defense attorney, was tapped in April to join the Trump legal team defending the former president against fraud charges related to buying silence from porn star Stormy Daniels.

“After much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up,” Blanche told Politico at the time.

Even before Trump’s historic back-to-back indictments, Blanche circled MAGA land. He represented Paul Manafort, who chaired the Trump campaign in 2016, and Igor Fruman, a Rudy Giuliani crony charged in a campaign-finance scheme.