Donald Trump has abruptly shunned tactics by lawyers working on his defense in the upcoming U.S. Senate impeachment trial, throwing the U.S. president’s legal strategy to riots, news reports said.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barberi, two lawyers in South Carolina, are no longer on Trump’s team in a move that was described as a “decision about each other,” sources told The Associated Press and Reuters.
Three other lawyers affiliated with the team – Josh Howard of North Carolina and Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris of South Carolina – parted ways with Trump, another source reportedly said.
A third source said Trump had differences with Bowers over strategy ahead of the lawsuit. The former president still complains that he suffered mass vote fraud in the Nov. 3 election won by President Joe Biden.
The shake-up leaves Trump’s defense team in turmoil as it prepares for a lawsuit starting Feb. 9 to discuss a recent impeachment article by the House of Representatives forcing Trump to provoke a storm 6 January of the US Capitol with its followers.
It was unclear who would now represent the former president at the trial. White House lawyers at his first trial last year, Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, are not expected to be involved in what happened.
Forty-five Senate Republicans backed a failed attempt last Tuesday to halt Trump’s impeachment lawsuit, in a show of party unity that some said was a clear sign that he would not be condemned for inciting terrorism at the Capitol.
“The efforts of Democrats to impose a president who has already resigned are completely non-legislative and so bad for our country,” Trump’s adviser Jason Miller said.
“In fact, 45 senators have already voted it illegal. We have done a lot of work, but we have not made a final decision on our legal team, which will be done soon, ”said Miller.
Finding lawyers
Clyde Wilcox, a government professor at Georgetown University, said Trump was unlikely to be convicted because that would take two-thirds of the Senate.
“As long as he doesn’t get rid of it he’s going to be free,” Wilcox told Al Jazeera.
“His best defense is the argument he started making last week, that he would go and start the Patriot Party. That threat is enough to keep many Republican elders going. He also threatens to appear and defend himself. That would be a circus enough, but it would also be a disaster. “
Trump has struggled to find lawyers who are willing to defend him after becoming the first president in history to have been introduced twice.
However, the New York Times reported Sunday that Trump and the Republican Party had raised $ 255.4m in the eight weeks after the Nov. 3 election, as Trump again demanded money from supporters while and he was trying to turn the results.
The Republican National Congress (RNC) should lift some of the bill during Trump’s first impeachment trial, according to the newspaper. It was unclear what role the RNC would play in the forthcoming trial.
The fundraiser means Trump left the post with tens of millions of dollars for his PAC Save America, which he can use for future political work.
After many lawyers who defended him previously refused to accept the case, Trump was introduced to Bowers by one of his closest friends in the Senate, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
Bowers, who was experienced in Republican legal circles, had years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including then-South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford against a failed impeachment attempt. into your ethics probe.
Bowers and Barbier did not return immediate messages seeking comment Saturday afternoon.
Republicans and Trump supporters have made it clear that they intend to make a simple argument: Trump’s lawsuit is illegitimate because he is no longer in office.
While Republicans in Washington seemed willing to part ways with Trump after the deadly events on Jan. 6, they have since recovered from the criticism, tired of fishing the base of loyal voters of the United States. -old president.