5 Trump Impeachment Defense Lawyers Leave Just Days Before Senate Trial Begins

Five lawyers on President Trump’s impeachment defense team have left with just days to go before the Senate begins its trial.

There has reportedly been a disagreement on the legal strategy as to how the case should be handled.

This has resulted in two of the lead lawyers as well as three other attorneys leaving the team.

Of course, the entire impeachment charade is yet another scam in a long-shot effort to damage Donald Trump.

The Constitution says “convict AND remove.”

Not “or” remove.

How can you possibly convict and remove a president who is already gone from office?

It is clear that Democrats are afraid of President Trump’s power even now.

They will do whatever they can to destroy him.

What does it say that five of Trump's impeachment defense attorneys have left just a week before his Senate trial starts?

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 31, 2021

All five of the impeachment lawyers who were expected to represent former Pres. Trump have called it quits, sources told @ABC News. https://t.co/4SBfjLpALE

— ABC News (@ABC) January 31, 2021

A third attorney, Josh Howard, who was also recently added to Trump's defense team, has also left, I'm told. Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and it was stolen from him rather than focus on proposed arguments about constitutionality.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 31, 2021

Of course…

With all the cancel culture that the left is trying to push on all-things-Trump, it’s likely that these lawyers had many pressures on them.

According to CNN, however, the reason the lawyers left is because of disagreement on legal strategy:

Former President Donald Trump’s five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, according to people familiar with the case, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy.

It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation.

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.

A person familiar with the departures told CNN that Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him rather than focus on the legality of convicting a president after he’s left office. Trump was not receptive to the discussions about how they should proceed in that regard.The attorneys had not yet been paid any advance fees and a letter of intent was never signed.
CNN has reached out to the attorneys for comment.

“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.

Bowers, a respected lawyer from Columbia, South Carolina, once worked in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush.
Barbier, a South Carolina litigator, worked closely on several high-profile cases and was a former federal prosecutor for 15 years in the state before opening up her own boutique criminal defense firm.

Gasser and Harris are both former federal prosecutors. Gasser served as the interim US attorney for South Carolina earlier in his career. Both have worked closely with Barbier on the defense side.

Despite this apparent setback, most observers note that President Trump is still in a strong position with approximately a week to go until the Senate trial begins.

Why?

Because most Republican senators view this entire process as UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

Not only is this impeachment trial a distraction from the important issues Americans want Congress focused on, it is unconstitutional, and I join the vast majority of Senate Republicans in opposing it. pic.twitter.com/hsrtmHPPgS

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) January 27, 2021

The “crisis” over Trump’s legal team quitting assumes that the substance of the impeachment case will sway Senate Republicans. Most already have their answer. Trump could offer no defense or he can go on the floor to read lines from the Joker movie—they would still vote to acquit

— Julian Zelizer (@julianzelizer) January 31, 2021

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Republicans on Saturday issued a formal censure to U.S. @RepTomRice, taking the step in disapproval of his vote supporting the second impeachment of Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/HAxCxUyouL

— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) January 30, 2021

In fact, a total of 45 Senate Republicans declared that this sham impeachment is indeed “unconstitutional.”

If 45 Republicans believe it is unconstitutional, then how could they possibly vote to “convict and remove” Donald Trump?

Assuming those same Senators vote to acquit Trump, then Democrats will fall short of the 2/3s necessary to convict and remove Trump.

Politico confirms:

Nearly every Senate Republican declared Tuesday that putting a former president on trial for impeachment is unconstitutional, indicating that the House’s case against Donald Trump is almost certain to fail.

The procedural vote, forced by Sen. Rand Paul, underscores the significant hurdles facing the House’s impeachment managers, who will need to convince at least 17 Republican senators in order to secure a conviction. Paul’s motion to declare the trial unconstitutional ultimately failed because Democrats opposed it; however, 45 GOP senators voted to affirm the Kentucky Republican’s view, delivering an early and possibly fatal blow to the House’s case.

Some Republicans said the vote did not necessarily indicate their views on the merits of the House’s case against Trump, in part because Paul’s motion focused on a narrow procedural question. But Paul’s effort reflects the widespread belief among Republicans that the Senate should not hold an impeachment trial because Trump is now a private citizen and therefore is not subject to the punishment of removal from office — though that view has been strongly challenged by legal scholars across the political spectrum.

Just five GOP senators — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey — voted with all 50 Democrats to affirm the trial as constitutional and allow it to move forward.

“If you voted that it was unconstitutional, how in the world would you ever vote to convict somebody for this?” Paul told reporters. “This vote indicates it’s over. The trial is all over.”

Immediately before the vote, senators were sworn in for the trial, which is set to formally begin on Feb. 8. The House impeached Trump earlier this month on one charge of inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the building in a rampage that left five people dead.

While Paul said the vote shows that the House’s impeachment case is “dead on arrival” in the Senate, it is possible that some senators judge the House’s case differently on its merits, especially as new information about the Jan. 6 insurrection continues to be revealed. Two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 senators, must vote for conviction in order for Trump to face punishments including being barred from holding federal office in the future.

Collins (R-Maine), who voted against Paul’s motion, agreed that the vote was indicative of the final vote on conviction. “Do the math,” she said. “I think that it’s extraordinarily unlikely the president will be convicted.”

“I don’t think Democrats expect to have the votes to convict,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) added. “I don’t think this is about accomplishing that. I think this is an effort to embarrass not only the former president but also members of the opposing party.”

Indeed, some of the 45 GOP senators who declared the trial unconstitutional said they would still weigh the evidence the House managers present independent of their vote on Tuesday, meaning that more than just five Republicans could be in play for conviction. Still, Tuesday’s vote strongly suggests that the House managers will fall well short of the two-thirds threshold.

This strongly suggests that the impeachment is dead on arrival.

Let’s hope those same Senators keep their backbone!

We cannot afford to divide the country any longer!

This impeachment is one of the most divisive things that Democrats can do…

Yet they’re doing it to appeal to their radicalized base.

Sad!