With little more than a week before the start of his second Senate impeachment trial, former U.S. President Donald Trump has a legal team in apparent disarray.
Two prominent South Carolina lawyers, Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, had been expected to be Trump’s lead lawyers. However, media reports Saturday said there was a mutual parting of the ways.
In addition, three other lawyers reported to have been working with the president are also no longer members of Trump’s legal team, according to information first reported by CNN.
Trump and the lawyers are reported to be at odds about what legal strategy is appropriate for the Feb. 9 trial.
The former president is facing charges of “incitement of insurrection” in connection with the mob that invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6. He is scheduled to reply to those charges by Tuesday.
Trump, media sources say, wants the lawyers to focus on to the false notion that he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden because he is a victim of widespread election fraud, instead of focusing on the insurrection charges.
Analysts say the former president will likely be acquitted since 45 Republican senators voted on a recent measure that the upcoming trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office.
Trump is the first U.S. president to have been impeached twice. He was acquitted by the Senate a year ago on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
