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There’s never a good time for someone to experience a multifaceted problem with their legal defense team, but for Donald Trump, the timing is especially unfortunate: The former president has, after all, been charged with a series of felonies across multiple jurisdictions.
And it’s against this backdrop that the Republican has confronted — and is still confronting — a series of troubles with lawyers in his orbit. Some, for example, were indicted in Georgia last week. Others might yet face federal criminal charges.
Some of the lawyers in Trump’s orbit are facing disbarment. Others have made unflattering public comments about their former client. A couple of attorneys who remain part of the former president’s legal team have said things to reporters that seemed to undermine the Republican’s interests.
And did I mention that Trump is struggling to keep up with “a mountain of legal bills”? Because that’s true, too.
But among the striking developments is the fact that the former president’s legal team keeps changing. As my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown noted:
Atlanta criminal defense attorney David Sadow will be leading Trump’s legal team moving forward, according to a filing this morning. He replaces David Findling, who first signed on with Trump last August.
To be sure, while Trump has struggled at times to hire top legal talent, as my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones explained, Sadow has a highly credible resume and relevant experience in cases like these.
As for why Findling is leaving the former president’s defense team, it’s unclear whether his departure was voluntary or not. That said, there are couple of dimensions to this that are worth keeping in mind. The first, as The New York Times reported, is Findling’s notable background.
When Mr. Trump chose Mr. Findling last summer to head his Georgia legal defense team, the choice fit with Mr. Trump’s pop-culture ties and his affinity for oversize personalities. Mr. Findling, who is often photographed wearing stylish sunglasses, refers to himself as the #BillionDollarLawyer on Instagram. ... Before he was hired, Mr. Findling had sharply criticized Mr. Trump numerous times on social media. In 2018, he referred to Mr. Trump as “the racist architect of fraudulent Trump University.” But once he was hired, Mr. Findling mounted a vigorous defense of Mr. Trump.
The second is the familiarity of the circumstances. It was, after all, just three months ago when Trump parted ways with Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer who helped lead the former president’s defense team in the classified documents case. A month later, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, two of the former president’s top lawyers, also “abruptly resigned.”
Now, Findling has joined them as former members of Trump’s legal defense team.
Will the revolving door spin some more as the Republican’s many criminal cases advance? Watch this space.