Donald Trump is left without a legal team to defend him in the impeachment trial next month since the members called it quits amid a disagreement over his legal strategy, CNN reports.
The lawyers had planned to argue the constitutionality of holding a trial given Trump is now a former president. But Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was widespread election fraud and that the election was stolen from him.
Lead attorneys Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier and other members of the team, Johnny Gasser, Greg Harris and Josh Howard have all stepped down one week before legal briefs are due and the trial is set to begin.
A source close to Donald Trump said the change was a “mutual decision” between the parties. The attorneys had not yet been paid any advance fees and a letter of intent was never signed, according to CNN.
Donald Trump was impeached by the House one week after the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country. 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,” former Trump campaign adviser, Jason Miller said.
While they believe that arguing the constitutionality of Trump’s impeachment is a winning message, no self respecting lawyer is willing to go near that case. Lawyers who represented Trump in the first impeachment trial will not be doing so this around and Giuliani says he can’t represent him since he is a witness in the case given that he spoke at the rally that preceded Trump supporters storming the Capitol.
According to CNN, no other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump’s impeachment defense.
The Senate trial is scheduled to begin on the week of Feb. 8. 67 senators are needed to vote to successfully convict Donald Trump.
