Trump’s defence team in disarray
Former US President Donald Trump abruptly parted ways on Saturday with the two lead lawyers working on his defence for his Senate impeachment trial, a source familiar with the situation said, leaving Trump’s legal strategy in disarray. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barberi, two South Carolina lawyers, are no longer on Trump’s team, the source said. The source described the move as a “mutual decision”. Three other lawyers associated with the team, Josh Howard of North Carolina and Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris of South Carolina, also parted ways with Trump, another source said. A third source said Trump had differences with Bowers over strategy ahead of the trial. The former president is still contending that he was the victim of mass election fraud in the November 3 election won by Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON: Former US president Donald Trump has parted ways with his lawyers who would have led his defence in the impeachment trial set to start on February 9 in the Senate.
Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer, whose appointment was announced last week, is leaving, as are Deborah Barbier, Josh Howard, Greg Harris and Johnny Gasser, according to CNN, which first reported the abrupt departures on Saturday.
Trump had reportedly pressed the lawyers to argue that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden because of fraud - a claim that didn’t stand scrutiny in more than 60 lawsuits, and multiple recounts and audits, and eventually led Trump to incite a mob of supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6.
The New York Times reported that a person close to Trump disputed the account that the former president had asked the lawyers to make the election fraud plea, but acknowledged that there were differences of opinion on the defence strategy.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote on January 13 for incitement of insurrection. He is the first US president to be impeached twice.
If convicted, Trump will be barred from holding any federal office in future, killing any plans that he may have of taking another shot at the White House.
But with the majority of the 100-member Senate’s 50 Republicans backing him, a supermajority of two-thirds needed to convict him looks unlikely. Even if all 50 Democrats voted to convict him, they will need 17 Republicans to join them to convict Trump.
According to reports, Trump has had trouble finding lawyers to defend him. His personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani might be a witness himself as he was among those who addressed the mob on January 6 in Washington, DC.