A little more than a week before Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is set to begin on February 8, all five attorneys who had been serving on his impeachment defense team have parted ways with the former president. The decision was said to have been mutually agreed upon.
Legal briefs are due this week before the trial begins a week from Monday. It’s hard to see how Trump could possibly mount an adequate defense before the trial, he just needs more time. Otherwise, Democrats risk the charge of not giving Trump a chance at any notion of a fair trial.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team.
Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the changes. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris, from South Carolina, are no longer involved with the case, either.
No other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump’s impeachment defense.
While neither the attorneys nor Trump has yet to release a statement, speculation on the reason for the split has centered on Trump’s insistence on using the trial as an excuse to prove his election fraud case rather than addressing the articles of impeachment — which accuse the former president of inciting an insurrection — or the legality of convicting a president once he’s out of office.
“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 told CNN.
Indeed, whether a former government official can be impeached or not remains an unresolved constitutional issue. But the vote has already been taken. There isn’t a senator sitting in the chamber who doesn’t know how he or she is going to vote and unless some new evidence emerges, Donald Trump will not be impeached by two-thirds of the Senate.
Democrats expect a political bonanza from impeaching Trump. They believe that by getting all the “facts” on the record, they will make the American people so disgusted by Republicans that the party will be virtually destroyed. However, anyone who contemplated leaving the Republican Party has left already. A trial of Trump won’t change anyone’s minds or lead to additional defections.
The real audience for impeachment will be the frothing, rabid anti-Trump hysterics in the Democratic Party who don’t think defeating Trump at the polls is enough. He must be publicly humiliated. They want a pound of flesh and will hold Democrat’s feet to the fire to make sure they wring every ounce of Trump-hate from the trial that’s possible.
Unity now. Unity forever!
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