Trump’s Impeachment Defence Team in Disarray as Lead Lawyers Quit
NEW YORK, Jan 31 (APP): Two lawyers leading former US President Donald Trump’s defense in his Senate impeachment trial have left the legal team a little over a week before the trial is scheduled to begin, according to American media reports.
Those departures include his lead lawyer, Butch Bowers, whose hiring was announced last week, The New York Times reported Sunday. Four other lawyers who were reported to be joining, including Deborah Barbier, a criminal defense lawyer in South Carolina, are also leaving, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the situation. Trump had pushed for his defence team to focus on his baseless claim that the election was stolen from him, the Times said, adding that a person close to Trump disputed that that was the case but acknowledged that there were differences in opinion about the defence strategy.
However, it said, Trump has insisted that the case is “simple” and has told advisers he could argue it himself and save the money on lawyers. The departures leave Trump in a difficult position with the trial set to open on Feb. 8. The Democrat-led House in January voted to impeach Trump for the second time, alleging he encouraged a mob to storm Congress to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Biden’s election victory.
While 10 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump in the House, Democrats in the Senate face steeper odds in persuading 17 Republicans to join them in voting to convict. Trump has accepted no responsibility for the Capitol riot and has denied wrongdoing. The former president faces a more complicated path to building a defence team than he did in his first impeachment trial, when he had the White House Counsel’s Office and a robust personal legal team behind him.
His personal lawyers, Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and Marty Raskin, privately made clear they didn’t plan to defend him a second time. It was unclear who would now represent the former president at the trial. His White House lawyers at his first impeachment trial last year, Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, are not expected to be a part of the proceedings.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said. “In fact, 45 senators have already voted that it is unconstitutional. We have done much work, but have not made a final decision on our legal team, which will be made shortly,” Miller said.
Forty-five Senate Republicans backed a failed effort last Tuesday to halt Trump’s impeachment trial, in a show of party unity that some cited as a clear sign he will not be convicted of inciting insurrection at the Capitol.
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