Impeachment of Trump: All Lawyers Left Ex-President One Week Before Senate Hearing

Five of former President Donald Trump's impeachment lawyers left just over a week before the trial. According to people familiar with the case, human rights defenders did so amid disagreements over his legal strategy. CNN.

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It was a dramatic event in Trump's second impeachment trial, which was struggling to find lawyers willing to take on his case. And when legal papers are due next week and a trial is scheduled a few days later, Trump suddenly lost legal representation.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were supposed to be the two leading attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the change said both of them have chosen to leave the legal team assembled by Bowers as lead attorney.

Josh Howard, a North Carolina lawyer who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the change. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris from South Carolina are no longer involved in this case either.

The source told CNN that Trump wanted lawyers to argue the defense on alleged massive electoral fraud and election was stolen from him, rather than focusing on the legality of the president's conviction after he left office. Trump has been reluctant to discuss how they should proceed in this regard.

The lawyers have not yet received any advance payments and the letter of intent has yet to be signed.

“Democrats' efforts to impeach a president who has already left office are completely unconstitutional and harmful to our country. In fact, 45 senators have already voted that it is unconstitutional. We've done a lot of work, but we haven't made a final decision on our legal team, which will be in place soon,” Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign adviser, told CNN.

On the subject: Capitol storm star ready to testify against Trump in impeachment case

Bowers, a respected lawyer from Columbia, South Carolina, once worked in the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush.

Barbier, a South Carolina-based lawyer, worked closely on several high-profile cases and was a federal prosecutor in the state for 15 years before starting her own criminal defense firm.

Gasser and Harris are former federal prosecutors. Earlier in his career, Gasser served as U.S. attorney ad interim in South Carolina. Both worked closely with Barbier on the defense side.

During Clinton's presidency, Howard served as assistant independent counsel in the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations and served for ten years at the Justice Department, where he worked on the confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Howard once served as chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, leaving his post in early 2016.

As recalled Air forceTrump is accused of inciting a riot that resulted in the January 6, 2021 capture of the Capitol and the death of five people. The House of Representatives impeached him shortly before the end of his presidency; this is a kind of analogue of an indictment in a criminal trial, and the Senate will consider this accusation as a court.

Senate hearings will begin on February 8. The fact that Trump has left the presidency does not prevent this (in American history there was one precedent of impeachment of an official who had already left office). If convicted, the Senate will be able to deprive the ex-president of his pension and other benefits, as well as a separate decision to prohibit him from being elected again.

However, a two-thirds majority of the senators is required for conviction. So far, it seems unlikely that there will be 67 senators in the House who will vote for this decision. Democrats have only 50 votes.

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Trump is the first president in history to be impeached twice.

In 2019, the House of Representatives impeached him, accusing the president of bribery and trying to force the president of Ukraine to open an investigation against Joe Biden (who ultimately defeated Trump in the 2020 elections), but the Republican majority in the Senate acquitted his party member.

Last week, 45 out of 50 Republican senators also voted to end the hearings before they even begin, on the grounds that former presidents cannot be impeached after leaving office.

As the NPR, Trump's team will now be led by lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor Jr., both of whom have experience in criminal defense.

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