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According to reporting from the New York Times, all five of the impeachment lawyers who were expected to represent former President Donald Trump have called it quits just before his trial is expected to start in the Senate next week.
The legal team led by South Carolina lawyer Butch Bowers, resigned in part because of disagreements over how to mount Trump’s defense, the reporting said. The lawyers had planned to argue the constitutionality of holding a trial given Trump is now a former president.
However, Trump wanted them to use a defense that relied on allegations of election fraud, and the lawyers were not willing to do so.
A source close to the former president described the change as a “mutual decision” between the parties. Trump advisor Jason Miller in a tweet responding to the story, said, “We have done much work, but have not made a final decision on our legal team, which will be made shortly.”
Trump has struggled to find lawyers willing to defend him in his second impeachment trial. His attorneys in his first impeachment trial all declined to defend him this time.
The trial, over Trump’s role in the Capitol attack this month, is set for Feb. 9.
The former president has until this Tuesday, Feb. 2, to respond to the article of impeachment passed by the House charging him with “incitement of insurrection.”
