Donald Trump‘s 2021 days just keep getting worse.
CNN reported on Sunday that the former President’s five impeachment defense attorneys have left the case with just a little over a week before the trial is set to begin. According to people familiar with the case, the attorneys decided to step away due to the way Trump wanted to approach the trial.
Trump reportedly wanted to argue that there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him. His attorneys wanted to focus on the legality of convicting/impeaching a President once he has left office. Trump didn’t seem receptive to this advice, forcing his legal team to disband.
The two lead attorneys, Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, initially retreated. With Bowers being the lawyer who helped assemble the defense, the rest of the team swiftly followed his lead. The attorney had not received any payment for their assumed work on trial or signed a letter of intent. This allowed them to make a clean break from Trump.
Now, with the trial quickly approaching, Trump is scrambling to put together a defense team that will follow his lead. Yet, no other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump’s impeachment defense. Still, Trump’s associates believe that he will be able to make his case against the impeachment.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller told CNN. “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.”
- Complex