NBA free agent Terry Rozier has hired prominent criminal defense attorney David Oscar Markus to represent him in his federal gambling trial. Markus replaces former Donald Trump lawyer Jim Trusty, who withdrew from the case last week.

Markus, who is based in Miami, has been recently representing Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

The change in counsel comes as Rozier seeks to challenge a key condition of his pretrial release: a court-approved no-contact list that bars him from communicating with players and personnel who were with the Charlotte Hornets in 2023. Prosecutors allege that in March 2023, Rozier conspired with associates in an illegal gambling scheme involving wagers tied to his performance in a Hornets game.

Through Trusty, Rozier has argued that the restriction on he can communicate with is “unfairly punitive” and effectively prevents him from resuming his NBA career.

Rozier has been a free agent since the Miami Heat waived him on April 10, after which the government agreed to remove the Heat from his no-contact list.

Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has told the court that, after consulting with lawyers for the NBA and Hornets, prosecutors have “no objection” to removing the blanket Hornets no-contact list. However, the government has asked that it can submit to the court a list of specific 2023 Hornets players and staffers who Rozier will not be allowed to communicate with, outside the presence of counsel, while the case is pending.

In a letter sent to U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall, a Barack Obama appointee who is presiding over the case, Nocella drew concerns about the various opportunities in which Rozier could theoretically have to tamper with witnesses before and after NBA games, if he were to join a roster ahead of next season. Rozier’s criminal trial date has been set for Feb. 7, 2027, a week-and-a-half before the NBA All-Star break.

“(T)he government notes that the defendant is charged with having manipulated his performance during a game to benefit himself and co-conspirators in exchange for a bribe,” Nocella wrote to the court. “The Hornets paid Mr. Rozier millions of dollars for his honest services, which, the indictment alleges, the Hornets and the NBA did not receive.”

In a subsequent letter to the judge, Trusty countered that the NBA, at the Heat’s behest, was attempting to use Rozier’s bond conditions to deprive him of the $26.6 million salary he was owed for the 2025-26 season—which has been subject to an arbitration dispute.

“The government is trying to graft the NBA’s tactics into the analytical framework of the Bail Reform Act of 1984,” Trusty wrote, arguing that Rozier had already posted a $3 million bond secured by his home and had given no indication that he posed either a flight risk or a danger to the community.

Trusty declined Monday to comment about the reason for his withdrawal as Rozier’s attorney.

A status hearing over Rozier’s bail conditions is scheduled for July 8. In an email to Sportico, Markus confirmed that he would be representing Rozier at the hearing but did not provide any further comment.

“I love representing the underdog,” Markus told Vanity Fair in an article last year about his representation of Maxwell. Like Trusty—whose appearances on Fox News reportedly got him hired by Trump—Markus has been a media fixture, writing op-eds, hosting a podcast and authoring a popular blog covering southern Florida’s legal community.

Rozier is not Markus’ first NBA client. In 2017, he represented Ray Allen in a countersuit against a Florida man who had accused the former Miami Heat star of stalking him. Allen contended that the man was trying to catfish him by pretending to be multiple attractive women.