Washington (CNN) Timothée Parlator is a lawyer for Donald Trump who played a key role in the Mar-a-Lago investigation and testified before the grand jury left the former president’s legal team, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.
Parlatore’s departure became official on Tuesday, after hesitating for several weeks in the former president’s inner circle. The high-profile departure comes as Special Counsel Jack Smith appears to be in the final stages of investigations into possible mishandling of classified documents and efforts to derail the 2020 election.
“It is an incredible honor to serve and work on such interesting legal matters. My departure was a personal choice and does not reflect status, as I strongly believe the team (at the Department of Justice) is at fault to pursue an investigation into my conduct,” Parlatore said in a statement to CNN. He is not a criminal.”
Parlatore also spoke with Trump about his exit.
Parlatore’s release is noteworthy given that he was the attorney who organized searches for additional classified documents last year at Trump Tower, Trump properties in Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago, an office in Palm Beach and a storage unit in Florida.
He also testified before a grand jury as Team Trump and the Justice Department became embroiled in a dispute in which the Justice Department unsuccessfully sought to contempt Trump for failing to turn over all classified documents, after receiving a subpoena in May 2022.
Parlatore appeared before a grand jury for about seven hours in December.
“They’ve repeatedly tried to ask me about my conversations with President Trump, and they’re completely outside the scope of what I was there for,” Parlatore said in March.
Parlatore recently co-wrote a letter to House Intelligence Chief Mike Turner asking Congress to tell the Justice Department to stand down because he believes the intelligence community should investigate what happened. It happened with secret documents.
The former president’s legal team has been embroiled in internal wrangling for months as his lawyers deal with the multiple investigations he faces during his third run for office. Trump privately expressed his displeasure with the massive bills he had introduced and questioned why investigations had not been completed, particularly of documents that had not yet disappeared.
At Town Hall with CNN last week, Trump twisted the Presidential Records Act and claimed he was “authorized” to take the records when he left office.
“When we left Washington, the boxes were lined up on the sidewalk outside for everyone,” Trump said. “People take pictures of them. Everyone knows we take these boxes.”
When asked if he showed anyone classified documents after leaving the White House, he replied, “Not really… No — I can’t think of that.” »
This story is down and will be updated.
