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Former President Donald Trump's legal troubles have gotten even worse after a witness in his federal classified documents case "flipped" on him, according to legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.
In a court filing on Tuesday, federal prosecutors working for Special Counsel Jack Smith revealed that Mar-a-Lago IT director Yuscil Taveras had retracted his "prior false testimony" after switching from a pro-Trump lawyer to a public defender. He now claims that Trump and his co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira worked to delete potentially incriminating security camera footage.
Kirschner, a staunch Trump critic and former federal prosecutor, said during the latest episode of his Justice Matters podcast on Wednesday that Taveras' decision to "start singing like a bird" indicated that "Trump world is falling apart" and that the former president would soon be facing "accountability."
"You get a conflict-free attorney—not one being paid for by Trump world, or Trump PACs—and you start singing like a bird," said Kirschner. "You start telling the truth about the crimes of Carlos De Oliveira, Walt Nauta and Donald Trump."
"God bless the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a right to counsel ... conflict-free counsel," he continued. "Trump world is falling apart. It's disintegrating and we are moving toward accountability and justice."
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump's office via email on Wednesday.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung previously said in a statement to Newsweek that Kirschner is "a notorious trafficker of wild conspiracy theories and dubious legal analysis" who "has been shunned by the legal community at large."
The filing from Smith's office on Tuesday revealed that Taveras, identified in the federal indictment as "Trump Employee 4," informed the court on July 5 that he no longer wished to be represented by Trump PAC-funded lawyer Stanley Woodward and requested that he be provided with a government-funded lawyer instead.
Michael McAuliffe, an elected state attorney in Florida and former federal prosecutor, previously told Newsweek that it was "very likely" Taveras would not be the only person to change legal representation and possibly "flip" on the former president.
"That witnesses, targets, and defendants all have the benefit of conflict-free counsel is critical in any criminal case," McAullife said. "It is very likely that others—witnesses in particular—will seek to obtain new counsel or that the special counsel will seek the court's intervention about counsel conflict issues for others."
"It's an effective tactic by the special counsel that can strengthen the prosecution's evidence when witnesses admit previously providing inaccurate or false information," he added.
Others legal experts have suggested that some of Trump's 18 co-defendants in Fulton County, Georgia, are likely to attempt to save themselves by turning on the ex-president, particularly those struggling to afford their own private legal representation, as Trump is unwilling to help.
The former president, who faces a total of 91 charges across four federal and state felony indictments, maintains his innocence in all cases, claiming to be the victim of political "persecution."
About the writer
Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more