Uncharted territory for ‘excellent’ lawyer
Butch Bowers is used to defending public officials in ethics cases. But he’s never faced anything quite like this.
It’s up to the South Carolina elections and ethics lawyer to defend Donald Trump as the Senate plunges into an impeachment trial unlike any other.
For Trump, the first US president to be twice impeached, the stakes are enormous. If convicted, he could be barred from holding public office, ending any hopes of mounting another White House bid in 2024.
Trump turned to Bowers, a familiar figure in Republican legal circles, after other legal allies passed on the case.
It is a notable departure from his first impeachment trial in 2020, when he had the full resources of the White House counsel’s office to defend him, and a stable of prominent attorneys – including Alan Dershowitz, Jay Sekulow, who represented him in the Russia investigation, and Kenneth Starr – in his corner.
Sekulow, who is not participating in Trump’s defence this time, said he did not expect
Bowers, who has years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, to be hindered by having never defended a current or former president in a Senate trial.
‘‘He’s an excellent lawyer with a tremendous reputation who understands the law and politics,’’ Sekulow said.
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, recommended Bowers to Trump.
His strategy for Trump’s defence is unclear, though questioning the validity of the trial is one option. Many Republicans in the Senate have said they harbour doubts about whether an impeachment trial for an exofficial is constitutional, even though it has happened before.
Bowers worked for former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford when state lawmakers considered impeaching him after revelations that Sanford had disappeared from the state, leaving no chain of command for five days, to see his lover in Argentina in 2009. The effort never made it out of committee.