Former President Donald Trump and his legal team split up just over a week before his impeachment trial in the Senate was due to start a riot in the Capitol earlier this month, according to a report.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, known for defending a slew of South Carolina politicians, retired from Trump’s team on Saturday, along with former federal prosecutors Greg Harris, Johnny Gasser and Josh Howard, Fox News reported Sunday.
The report quoted a source as saying it was a mutual decision on the direction of the defense argument.
The House charged Trump on Jan. 13 on charges of “instigating an uprising” with 10 Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who crossed the aisle to vote for the Democrats.
The trial is scheduled to begin on February 9.
The former president was charged with setting fire to a mob of his supporters who overran law enforcement officers and stormed the Capitol on January 6, smashing doors, smashing windows and entering the building. The fact is, you don’t have to worry.
Five people died as a result of the chaos, including a Capitol Police officer who died of his injuries defending the federal building. The fact is, you don’t have to worry.
New lawyers are expected to join the legal team this week to defend Trump in the Senate.
Bowers and the other lawyers disagreed with Trump, who wanted them to base their defense on claims that the Nov. 3 presidential election was rife with fraud and that it had been stolen from him, the Associated Press reported.
President Biden was inaugurated on January 20.
While the House voted to impeach Trump for a second time, he is expected to be acquitted in the Senate, as 17 Republicans are unlikely to vote to convict.
In total, 45 of the 50 Republicans in the Senate voted to dismiss the trial on the grounds that it was unconstitutional, citing the fact that Trump is already absent, which is the whole point of impeachment.