In the summertime of 2022, Donald Trump badly wanted criminal-defense attorneys. Tim Parlatore, who was already working for the previous president on an unrelated civil matter, joined the staff defending Trump after an FBI search discovered labeled authorities paperwork saved at his Florida property. Parlatore had represented distinguished Trump allies of their interactions with the congressional committee investigating the January 6 assaults; that was useful, as a result of Trump additionally confronted costs stemming from the riot. Parlatore was a star lawyer in Trump world, so it’s greater than a bit shocking that, within the fall of that 12 months, he employed a detailed affiliate of some of the infamous villains within the prolonged MAGA universe: Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier than he joined the Parlatore Regulation Group, Darren Indyke was Epstein’s private lawyer for almost 1 / 4 century and reportedly amongst his closest associates and advisers. Parlatore’s resolution to rent Indyke seems to have escaped public discover. However Indyke, by his personal account, has been working for the agency since October 2022.
Indyke can be a co-executor of Epstein’s property, which has made settlement funds to greater than 100 alleged victims of the deceased multimillionaire’s intercourse trafficking. Two ladies have sued Indyke, together with Epstein’s former accountant, claiming that they helped administer a community of dozens of financial institution accounts, company entities, and cash transfers that enabled Epstein’s crimes. In courtroom filings, Indyke has categorically denied any involvement in or information of Epstein’s alleged crimes.
I known as Parlatore earlier this week after I observed Indyke’s photograph and bio on the regulation agency’s web site. “He has abilities doing a bunch of stuff that I don’t know do, so far as company work,” Parlatore instructed me throughout a quick dialog. He added that Indyke’s “expertise on the authorized facet of the Epstein enterprise was precious.” As an illustration, Indyke is aware of construction monetary preparations and buy plane, Parlatore mentioned. “I employed him due to that.”
These varieties of monetary abilities are what the 2 ladies who sued Indyke allege have been on the coronary heart of Epstein’s prison enterprise. In his bio, Indyke touts his expertise “as normal counsel to household places of work, serial entrepreneurs, buyers, and different ultra-high-net-worth clientele.” He doesn’t point out Epstein. Amongst his different capabilities: “Complicated enterprise and business transactions,” in addition to “aviation, marine, and different unique asset purchases, gross sales, and operation.”
Indyke “got here to me as a result of he was searching for a job,” Parlatore instructed me. He mentioned he was conscious of the allegations within the ongoing civil lawsuit, which was filed in 2024, after Indyke had joined the agency. However he mentioned that Indyke had assured him that “the FBI seemed into it, they usually didn’t discover something.”
Indyke has not been charged with against the law. He didn’t reply to an electronic mail or a textual content message I despatched, or to a voicemail I left on the quantity listed for him on the agency.
When he employed Indyke, Parlatore instructed me, “the Epstein stuff, so far as I used to be involved, was irrelevant to me.”
The Epstein stuff is extremely related, nevertheless, and of the utmost political salience to Trump’s base. For a lot of Trump voters, the Epstein story captures how wealthy and highly effective individuals can use their affect and connections to cowl up each other’s darkish deeds. It’s the sort of corrupt back-scratching that Trump has lengthy pledged to stamp out. For weeks now, Trump has been at pains to distance himself from Epstein, as soon as a detailed buddy. Parlatore’s work with Indyke appears unlikely to assist that effort, significantly as a result of Parlatore is now working carefully with a key member of Trump’s Cupboard, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth.
To describe Parlatore merely as what he’s—Hegseth’s private lawyer and a Pentagon adviser—would overlook the symbiotic relationship that allowed each of them to rise inside Trump’s circle.
Parlatore started representing U.S. troops accused of grave misconduct when Hegseth was catching Trump’s consideration as a Fox Information host, throughout the president’s first time period. Hegseth made defending troops a private on-air trigger, arguing the navy courtroom system unfairly prosecuted “warriors” who had made robust choices within the warmth of battle.
Parlatore represented Navy Chief Eddie Gallagher, who was charged with premeditated homicide following the loss of life of a 17-year-old suspected Islamic State fighter in Iraq in 2017. Two years later, a courtroom acquitted Gallagher on all costs aside from taking {a photograph} with the corpse, and the Navy demoted him. Trump then pardoned Gallagher and reinstated his rank.
Parlatore had additionally turn into Hegseth’s private lawyer. In 2024, after Trump nominated Hegseth as protection secretary, Parlatore threatened authorized motion in opposition to a lady who had filed a police report seven years earlier saying that Hegseth had assaulted her in a resort. Parlatore instructed CNN that Hegseth’s accuser was free to talk publicly, as a result of a confidentiality settlement overlaying her and the nominee was not in impact. However he mentioned he would contemplate suing her for civil extortion and defamation if she made what Parlatore described as false claims that may jeopardize Hegseth’s probabilities of Senate affirmation.
Parlatore aggressively criticized reporters who questioned Hegseth’s {qualifications} to run the Protection Division, and he helped his shopper put together for a contentious nomination listening to. Hegseth squeaked via, after Vice President J. D. Vance solid the tie-breaking vote to substantiate him.
Parlatore has been by Hegseth’s facet since he entered the Pentagon in January. A former naval surface-warfare officer, Parlatore rejoined the service as a reserve commander within the JAG Corps. Hegseth swore him again into uniform.
At the same time as Hegseth has fired or dismissed quite a lot of advisers, Parlatore has survived, and lots of officers within the Pentagon see him as the important thing middleman to achieve Hegseth. When journalists name the Pentagon with questions, they’re usually directed to Parlatore.
Parlatore has additionally backed up Hegseth’s coverage agenda, supporting the removing of tons of of books flagged for DEI-related content material from the library of the U.S. Naval Academy, from which Parlatore graduated.
Earlier than Trump’s reelection, Parlatore was a central member of the authorized staff representing the previous president within the classified-documents case and even testified earlier than the grand jury investigating the matter. He oversaw searches for extra labeled paperwork at Trump properties.
Parlatore left Trump’s authorized staff in Might 2023, shortly earlier than the previous president was charged within the paperwork case, amid disputes with one other lawyer who Parlatore thought was hindering Trump’s protection.
According to Indyke’s LinkedIn profile, he’s “of counsel” on the Parlatore Regulation Group, which often describes a lawyer who shouldn’t be a associate, but additionally not a junior worker. Some attorneys who’re of counsel work on particular tasks or with explicit purchasers.
Parlatore instructed me that Indyke’s work on the Epstein property has stored him so busy that he didn’t have time for a lot else. Indyke additionally represents a couple of particular person purchasers, Parlatore mentioned, with out naming them.
In the meantime, Parlatore has been dabbling in conspiracy theories concerning the loss of life of his colleague’s former boss. On the Shawn Ryan Present podcast in Might of final 12 months, the host requested Parlatore why instances like Epstein’s “are simply being whisked away into nothing.”
The apparent cause Epstein’s federal prosecution for intercourse trafficking didn’t transfer ahead in 2019 was that he hanged himself in his Manhattan jail cell. However Parlatore sensed darker forces at play.
“There’s at all times strain being introduced when sure instances may reveal embarrassing issues about individuals in energy,” he mentioned. He speculated that Epstein had by no means stood trial “as a result of he was permitted to kill himself.” By whom, he didn’t say.
Earlier this week, Parlatore posted a monologue on social media dismissing the concept that Epstein stored a “shopper checklist,” the white whale of the saga that might supposedly establish highly effective males for whom Epstein procured younger ladies and ladies. Parlatore advised that Epstein didn’t create such a listing, however that the Justice Division attorneys who prosecuted him could have finished so.
Authorities attorneys, he argued, “solely actually pursued the idea that Epstein trafficked ladies for himself. They didn’t trouble searching for who else was concerned.”
Left unsaid was that a few of Epstein’s victims have gone searching for others concerned in enabling Epstein’s misconduct, they usually declare that one path results in Indyke.
Final 12 months, Epstein’s property, which Indyke administers with Epstein’s former accountant, acquired a virtually $112 million tax refund from the IRS. “With most massive claims in opposition to the property having been settled, that newfound money isn’t prone to make its solution to victims of the disgraced financier,” The New York Instances reported in January. However among the belongings may go to Indyke, in addition to different beneficiaries that Epstein named earlier than he died.
I requested Parlatore if he was conscious that his affiliate stood to reap a monetary windfall. That was information to him, he mentioned, then added that if Indyke does come into a big amount of cash, maybe he’ll stop the regulation agency.
Nancy A. Youssef contributed reporting.
