Donald Trumphad trouble obtaining counsel for his arraignment in Florida on Tuesday, a legal source tells PEOPLE, after two of his lawyers quit the same day a federal indictment was made public.
Amid the chaos of the indictment being unsealed on Friday, two of Trump’s attorneys – Jim Trusty and John Rowley — announced theywere stepping back from their roles.
With his latest legal troubles, Trump appears to be facing another challenge: finding people to represent him in the case.
“One of his PAC heads called six law firms in Florida to represent the former president and they all said no,” a plugged in legal source tells PEOPLE.
The source adds that Trump “is still looking desperately. It could work to Trump’s advantage though to see what this Trump-appointed judge does if he doesn’t have adequate legal representation in Florida.”
A protester against Donald Trump stands outside the Miami federal courthouse on arraignment day.Stephanie Keith/Getty
Stephanie Keith/Getty
The indictment and arraignment come months afterthe FBI searchedthe former president’s Mar-a-Lago home and a subpoena from federal authorities requested that Trump hand over any classified documents he had brought with him after leaving the White House.
Trump also allegedly had his personal valet, Walt Nauta (who is also charged in the case), move classified documents “to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI, and the grand jury.”
Trump also said, according to the attorney, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here? … Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
Elsewhere in the indictment, the same attorney details how he asked Trump whether he should take one of the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and place it in a safe at his hotel room. Trump, the attorney told investigators, “made a funny motion as though – well okay why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out. And that was the motion that he made. He didn’t say that.”
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Now, the legal source tells PEOPLE, “Trump is looking for young lawyers to make himself look better and because he doesn’t think older lawyers have the ability to help him in this serious situation.”
The source adds: “He worries they are too old and don’t have the in-depth knowledge of what they can use in his defense. They are basically too removed.”
source: people.com
