Jim Trusty, a lawyer for Donald Trump, is withdrawing from representing him in yet another case, pulling out of a total of three legal matters involving the former president.
On Friday, Trusty filed a motion to withdraw as Trump’s attorney in the Trump v. CNN defamation lawsuit accusing the network of labelling Trump as a “‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler.'”
In a filing with the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida, Trusty said “irreconcilable differences” with Trump prevented him from “effectively and properly” representing him.
The filing comes a week after Trusty and John Rowley, another Trump attorney, resigned from representing the former president in special counsel Jack Smith‘s two federal probes—one related to Trump’s mishandling of classified documents and the other to his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Last week’s resignation came hours after the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Trump on 37 felony charges, including 31 counts under the Espionage Act, related to the classified records probe.
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Newsweek reached out to Trusty via email for comment.
“It has been an honor to have spent the last year defending him, and we know he will be vindicated in his battle against the Biden Administration’s partisan weaponization of the American justice system,” Trusty and Rowley wrote in a statement. “Now that the case has been filed in Miami, this is a logical moment for us to step aside and let others carry the cases through to completion.”
Four days later, Trump pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, which he attended with attorneys Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise.
In his defamation lawsuit against CNN, Trump is seeking $475 million in damages, claiming that the network’s “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the Plaintiff has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears the
Plaintiff will run for president in 2024.”
Trump’s attorneys are arguing that CNN has used the phrase, “The Big Lie,” in reference to Trump and the 2020 election more than 7,700 times since January 2021 and that the network has done so “to aggravate, scare and trigger people.”
Trump has long been one of CNN’s most outspoken critics, repeatedly accusing the network of reporting “fake news.” After filing the suit against CNN, the former president suggested that he would also take “appropriate action” against other news organizations and the House select committee investigating January 6.
Last week, CNN ousted CEO Chris Licht after his 13 months at the company and less than a month after the network hosted its Trump town hall—a broadcast that received both high ratings and tremendous backlash.
Over the weekend, Trump responded to the news, telling a crowd at at the North Carolina GOP Convention, “Mr. Licht, sorry about that! I’d like to apologize to Mr. Licht!”
