Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team has collapsed just days ahead of his Senate impeachment trial, according to multiple news reports.
Multiple reports indicated that Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer who assembled the impeachment defense team, and Deborah Barbier, a criminal defense lawyer in South Carolina, were no longer going to be part of Trump’s team and that the decision was “mutual.” Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney, has also reportedly left Trump’s team, and South Carolina lawyers Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris are also reportedly out.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” Jason Miller, an adviser to the former president, told The Daily Wire. “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.”
Multiple news outlets noted that the team fell apart after Trump wanted them to focus on claims that the election was stolen from through election fraud—a claim that former Attorney General William Barr had disagreed with. The lawyers reportedly said no and that was when the parties decided to part ways.
Barr, who authorized federal prosecutors to pursue every legitimate claim of election fraud after the election, later said that prosecutors had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Republican strategist and Mitch McConnell ally Janet Mullins Grissom commented on the situation, writing: “If you’re Trump this is rather a no brainer. With Senate Rs aka the jury on record that impeaching former president is unconstitutional why spend money on lawyers?”
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