Trump Cans Top Lawyer in Georgia Case Hours Before Surrender Because Sure, Why Not

On Thursday night, Donald Trump is expected to turn himself in at a jail in Fulton County, Georgia, to be booked on 13 felony counts for trying to overturn the 2020 election in that state, and will likely have his mug shot taken. What did he have planned for the hours prior? Canning his top lawyer in the case, apparently.

On Thursday morning, Atlanta-based attorney Steven Sadow filed paperwork stating that he is now the “lead counsel of record” for Trump; Sadow is replacing attorney Drew Findling, whom the ex-president hired last year to defend him. In a statement first reported by CNN, the new lawyer on the case said: “I have been retained to represent President Trump in the Fulton County, Georgia, case. The president should never have been indicted. He is innocent of all the charges brought against him. We look forward to the case being dismissed or, if necessary, an unbiased, open-minded jury finding the president not guilty. Prosecutions intended to advance or serve the ambitions and careers of political opponents of the president have no place in our justice system.”

According to The New York Times, Trump, who frequently grows “dissatisfied with lawyers he hires, had been inquiring for several days about who else he could bring in,” according to a person familiar with the matter, with the ex-president’s alleged concern being a desire for a more “sophisticated” legal team. According to a source who spoke to CNN, Findling was not replaced over his performance, though presumably Trump was not thrilled by the failed attempt to get evidence thrown out and have District Attorney Fani Willis removed from the case. Like Findling, who in 2018 referred to the then president as “the racist architect of fraudulent Trump University,” Sadow has also expressed less than glowing sentiments about Trump; while criticizing former FBI director James Comey in 2017, Sadow said on Twitter than he was “not a DT supporter.”

Nevertheless, Trump presumably hired his new attorney in part due to the guy’s experience with racketeering charges, which alone have the potential to put the ex-president away for up to 20 years. Per the Times:

Mr. Sadow represented the rapper Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Kitchens, in a high-profile case in Fulton County. Mr. Kitchens pleaded guilty in December to a racketeering charge in the sprawling case against Young Slime Life, or YSL, an Atlanta hip-hop collective. He was released after his initial five-year sentence was commuted to time served, with the remainder suspended.

More than two decades ago, Mr. Sadow was a fixture in news reports about a scandal involving an Atlanta strip club called the Gold Club, which, according to federal prosecutors, had ties to the Gambino crime family of New York and was a den of prostitution and grift. Mr. Sadow represented the club’s owner, Steven E. Kaplan, who pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge, an outcome Mr. Sadow called “a very good deal for all concerned.”

Of course, finding someone even willing to represent Trump has not always been easy, given (1) his alleged habit of not paying his lawyers and (2) the reputational hit that comes with associating with a twice-impeached, four-time-indicted accused criminal whom millions of people despise. Last year, shortly after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, and months before Trump was criminally charged for his handling of classified documents, The Washington Post reported that “Trump and close aides [had] spent the eight days since the FBI searched his Florida home rushing to assemble a team of respected defense lawyers,” but, in the words of one person familiar with the matter, “everyone [said] no.” (He’s since found people willing to take the job.)