A key witness against former President Donald Trump and his two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case recanted previous false testimony and provided new information implicating the defendants after he switched lawyers, special counsel Jack Smith’s office said in a new court filing.
Yuscil Taveras, the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Florida, changed his testimony last month about efforts to delete security camera video at the club after he changed from a lawyer paid for by Trump’s Save America PAC to a public defender, Tuesday’s filing says.
Is it odd that he switched to public defender instead of acquiring his own representation?
Well considering Trump has a long history of not actually paying his employees, wouldn’t be surprised if this guy couldn’t afford it
On review of all the additional evidence and testimony, it became obvious to the prosecution that the key witness (“Trump Employee 4” - revealed by NBC News to be “Yuscil Taveras” - IT Director at Mar-a-Lago) in question had perjured himself in earlier grand jury testimony and that it was a conflict of interest for that witness to be represented by by the same attorney (Stanley Woodward) representing other involved clients.
Prosecutors asked for a hearing on the representation issue before James Boasberg, the chief US District Court judge in Washington DC who oversaw the grand jury investigation.
Judge Boasberg had a federal defender available to advise Taveras if requested, and Taveras did opt to change lawyers after he learned he was being investigated on suspicion of making false statements in previous grand jury testimony.
So, TL/DR: he went with the public defender out of the immediacy and need for independent counsel and the only option available at that moment was the public defender who was pre-emptively made available by the Judge himself.
I will speculate that he will be acquiring his own representation going forward.
Attorneys will jump on it, their name attached to a case like this can make and break careers.
Probably was offered immunity, but his Trump paid lawyer said no. So why spend money on a lawyer when you can get a public defender for free and then take the deal?
He probably can’t afford it
He’s the “IT guy” at a hotel. That doesn’t scream high net worth to me.
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You do have to have money in the first place.
Trump hates paying people.
Also, this is a case that is likely to take a lot of time and require a lot of attorney time. A public defender is likely a more sound financial decision even for someone with a reasonable amount of savings. Why go into crippling debt defending yourself from a former president, when a public defender will do it on the tax payer dime.
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Idk but possibly related: I’ve heard that there are a good number of times you should prefer public defender to paid representation.
Ohh. Why’s that?
Not OP and not too sure myself, but one instance I could think of is if you’re a defendant in a high-profile political crime case, but you yourself are not a politician and have no stakes in the outcome for the other defendents so a superpac that does have that interest hires you a lawyer who convinces you to give a false testimony in order to protect said other defendent in leiu of your own best interests.
That’s called a conflict of interest and possibly suborning perjury. That’s the kind of thing that would get you disbarred, if the Bar actually cared about such things.
Make Attorneys Get Attorneys
Pretty sure Trump has scared off any lawyers who are not terribly crooked at this point. He’s got kind of a history of throwing any halfway honest ones under the bus or not listening to their recommendations. He sounds like a nightmare client.
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The main thing I’ve heard is that public defense is offen local to the court house and therefore has a feel for tone, procedure and manner. This might give them a few sympathy points, and even though obv the case itself is far more important, this makes a few things easier still.