appears to be in the final
stretch of his investigations
into former president Donald
Trump.
Smith has been looking into the
possible mishandling of
classified documents and efforts
to obstruct the 2020 election.
Now notable development this
week, Tim parlatore, one of
trump's key attorneys, announced
he is leaving the team.
He worked on January 6th
investigation and played a key
role in the mar-a-lago documents
probe, including organizing
additional searches at trump
tower, bedminster and an office
in palm beach as well as a
Florida storage unit.
Parlatore also appeared before
the grand jury for several hours
back in December and Tim joins
me now.
Tim, thanks so much for being
here with us.
I think everybody wants to know
after the news this week, why
did you leave the former
president's legal team?
>> So, as I said at the time, it
had nothing to do with the case
or the client.
The real reason is because there
are certain individuals that
made defending the president
much harder than it needed to
be.
In particular, there is one
individual who works for him,
Boris Epstein, who had really
done everything he could to try
to block us, to prevent us from
doing what we could to defend
the president, and ultimately it
got to a point where it's
difficult enough fighting
against doj and in this case
special counsel, but when you
have people within the tent that
are also trying to undermine
you, block you, and really make
it so that I can't do what I
know that I need to do as a
lawyer and when I am getting
into fights like that, that's
detracting from what is
necessary to defend the client
and ultimately was not in the
client's best interest.
So I made the decision to
withdraw.
>> Infighting is nothing new in
trump world.
Is there any specific incidents
of something a he did to, as you
say, prevent you from being able
to properly represent your
client?
>> Sure.
I mean, he served as kind of a
filter to present us from getting
information to client, getting
information from the client.
In my opinion, he was not very
honest with us or with the
client on certain things.
There were certain things like
the searches that he had
attempted to interfere with, and
then more recently, as we're
coming down to the end of this
investigation where jack Smith
and ultimately Merrick Garland
is going to make a decision as
to what to do, we put together
our defense strategy to educate
Merrick Garland as to how best
to handle this matter, he was
preventing us from engaging in
that strategy.
>> You said that Boris tried to
prevent you from conducting
searches.
What searches?
>> The search at bedminster
initially.
There was a lot of pushback from
him.
He didn't want us doing the
search.
And we had eventually overcome
him.
>> Why didn't he want you doing
the search?
>> I don't know.
You know, Boris is -- you know,
he is a lawyer.
He spent about 18 months at a
big firm doing transactional
work and I think he thinks based
on that experience he knows
better than us.
>> You previously testified
before the grand jury in
December.
Some people speculated you
couldn't represent the former
president because you're a
witness.
What is your response?
>> That unfortunately is a lack
of understanding.
First of all, I was not
subpoenaed.
What that was so the original
subpoena to the office of the
former president, they wanted a
custodian of records to appear.
They really wanted is a staffer
from palm beach to talk about,
you know, what searches were
done so they could beat them up,
and ultimately there wasn't
really a good person on the
staff to send.
So we made the decision, I made
the decision to go in myself and
to face the prosecutors and to
actually speak directly to the
grand jury and explain them what
was really going on here.
So as I went in and I talked
about what we, as a legal team,
had done in searching all the
properties, that doesn't make me
a material witness or anything
like that.
So there is no conflict.
There is no issue or -- I would
expect to ever be called back in
there.
In fact, there were a couple of
opportunities where I offered to
come back.
The prosecutors didn't want me
back.
So it really has nothing to do
with that.
>> So you recently sent a letter
with the other attorneys on the
legal team to the house
select -- the house permanent
select committee on
intelligence.
>> Yes.
>> One of the arguments you make
is the reason the documents
enended up in mar-a-lago because
at the end of any
administration, particularly
this one, it's chaotic and
specifically you said that the
fact that these ended up at
mar-a-lago is, quote, indicative
of the staff's packing process
and not any criminal intent by
former president trump.
The problem is, the former
president and his allies and one
of your fellow attorneys have
all publicly contradicted that
explanation for how these things
ended up down at mar-a-lago.
At least four official
explanations that they have put
down about the status of these
documents.
I want to go through them
chronologically.
Starting after the search
warrant as executed at
mar-a-lago some of the president
Putin it's Al lace came out and
said he issued a sweeping
declassification order on
multiple occasions so that the
documents removed from the oval
office were deemed declassified
when he removed them.
Did you ever see any evidence of
any such order?
>> I never saw the order.
You know, that would not be
something that we would have
access to, if it was a written
order as opposed to an oral
order.
I didn't see that.
>> So the former president then
a couple weeks later said this
to Sean hannity.
>> If you are the president of
the United States, you can
declassify by saying it's
declassified, even by thinking
about it.
>> So the letter says that he
wasn't really aware of these
documents being placed because
it was chaotic, they all were
shipped to mar-a-lago.
How can you declassify something
with your mind if you don't know
that it's in one of these boxes?
>> These are two unrelated
concepts.
So there is the issue of
classification or
declassification.
That's separate and apart from
the issue of document management
and what goes in the boxes.
One of the things that we were
trying to explain there is that
the processes that are in play
in the white house, in the oval
office, they don't match the
same level of, you know, care,
if you will, that are done in
the intelligence agencies and in
the military.
And so marked documents, whether
classified or key classified,
and unclassified documents get
mixed in.
This is not just about when
packed up to leave.
This is about the four years
while they are in office.
Now, since we submitted this
letter we found out that the
archivist testified that every
administration going back to
Reagan has had the exact same
issue.
That's what we were talking
about there.
So the procedures for
declassification is a separate
issue from how these boxes were
packed and how the documents
were kept during that four
years.
>> Now, we know from CNN
reporting this week jack Smith,
the special counsel, is
interested in this process and
especially how much your former
client knew and understood about
the process.
A fellow attorney who signed
this letter told Erin Burnett
earlier this week.
>> He is aware of a bureaucratic
process that can be used.
At the end of his presidency he
relied on constitutional
authority as commander-in-chief
which is to take documents and
take them to mar-a-lago while
still president as we was at the
time and to effectively
declassify and personalize them.
He talked about declassifying
them but he didn't need to.
>> So it appears that he is
saying that during the
presidency former president
trump followed the process for
declassifying but towards the
end of the presidency he did
not.
Does that contradict what you
guys told congress?
>> It doesn't because again we
are talking about document
management, not
declassification.
And when it comes to all the
declassification procedures, one
thing you have to remember, when
you get a security clearance,
top secret security clearance,
you get the training and the
forms that you have to fill out
and agreements to sign.
Presidents don't get that.
Elected officials, they don't
have security clearances.
They gain access to this
material simply by virtue of the
fact that they were elected.
So when you're the president,
you are not actually going in
the log book and doing the
entries to declassify something.
You're just saying to your
staff, hey, this document here,
I want declassified.
Then you kinda take it with you.
Now, should the staff have
followed certain procedures?
Sure.
But again declassification
procedures is one of the things
that we were not dealing with in
this let early.
And in fact I put a footnote in
there that we weren't dealing
with declassification, simple
document management, moving,
store and what narrow procedures
there are upon the
administration change with the
presidential records act.
>> So we are talking about the
presidential records.
Record created during the
administration that belong to
the government and should be
returned and classified.
Last question before we break
for a minute.
Is there any evidence that the
former president declassified
the classified documents that
were found in the boxes?
>> We don't have an inventory of
what those documents are to be
able to chase that down.
So once doj gives an inventory
so we would know actually what's