Trump fires team of defense lawyers in run-up to Senate trial
Former President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he had fired the five lawyers who had agreed to be his defense team in the upcoming Senate trial for inciting an insurrection on January 6. Late Sunday, Trump’s office in Florida announced that two new lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor Jr., had agreed to take the case.
The abrupt change in the legal team was reportedly driven by Trump’s demand that his lawyers defend his actions on January 6 by claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by the Democrats. The first legal team balked and pressed for Trump to confine his defense to arguments that the Senate trial of an ex-president, now a private citizen, would be unconstitutional.
Posted by Scott Lucas | Feb 1, 2021 |
UPDATE, FEB 1: Donald Trump has named David Schoen and Bruce Castor as his new attorneys for his impeachment trial, after his five-member defense team resigned over the weekend.
Trump announced the appointments on Sunday evening.
Marc Elias, a specialist in election law, noted that Schoen and Castor were arguing against Trump’s “stolen election” claims only a few months ago.
It appears that Trump s new impeachment lawyer s firm sued Trump and the US Postal Service.
In their lawsuit, they noted that Trump has made repeated claims that voting by mail is ripe with fraud despite having no evidence in support of those claims. pic.twitter.com/zRSE7acO3Q
These lawyers will now lead Trump s impeachment defense team
From CNN s Jim Acosta, Kaitlan Collins and Pamela Brown
Former President Donald Trump on November 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Erin Schaff/Pool/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump s office announced that David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr. will now head the legal team for his second impeachment trial, a day after CNN first reported that five members of his defense left and his team effectively collapsed.
One point of friction with his previous team was Trump wanted the attorneys to focus on his election fraud claims rather than the constitutionality of convicting a former president.
On Sunday, it was confirmed that five members of his defence team had left. Lead attorney Butch Bowers, who is believed to have put together the team, has quit, along with Deborah Barbier, Johnny Gasser, Greg Harris and Josh Howard.
Bowers and Barbier were both expected to serve as lead attorneys, and sources told CNN that it was a mutual decision to leave the trial.
CNN also reported that there was friction between Donald Trump and his team on how to approach the trial. Trump reportedly wanted to continue his claims that there was mass voter fraud and that the election was stolen from him - a claim there is little substantial evivdence of - while the legal team wanted to question the legality of impeaching a President once they had left office. Trump was apparently not receptive to this.
Donald Trump announces David Schoen and Bruce L Castor as lead defence lawyers for impeachment trial
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Donald Trump s second impeachment trial is set to begin in just over a week.
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Donald Trump has announced two new lawyers to lead his impeachment trial defence, just one day after parting ways with his two previous top lawyers.
David Schoen and Bruce L Castor are set to defend the former president on a charge of inciting an insurrection after last month s Capitol riots.
News emerged over the weekend that Trump s two previous lead lawyers, Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, were no longer with the defence team just a week before the trial was set to begin.