By Aiyeku Timothy
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly fired the two lead lawyers working on his defense for his Senate impeachment trial.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barberi, two South Carolina lawyers, are the two Trump’s lawyers that were fired but a source said they parted ways following a “mutual decision.”
Three other lawyers associated with the team, Josh Howard of North Carolina and Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris of South Carolina, also parted ways with Trump, another source said.
This development leaves Trump’s defense team in turmoil as he prepares for a trial starting on Feb. 9 to consider an article of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives charging Trump with inciting the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by his followers.
It is now unclear who would now represent the former president at the trial as his White House lawyers at his first impeachment trial last year, Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, are not expected to be a part of the proceedings.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” said Trump adviser Jason Miller.
The official reason given for the abrupt departures was differences of opinion regarding legal strategy – but now, US news agency Axios claims there was another major factor at play – money.
According to Axios, insiders claim the “notoriously stingy” former president clashed with head lawyer Butch Bowers over his fees, despite Trump raising US$170 million (NZ$237m) in donations which could be used to pay his legal expenses.
They allegedly agreed Bowers would pocket US$250,000, but that didn’t include other expenses.
Trump was apparently furious when he was told the total cost would be around US$3m, and they eventually negotiated it down to US$1m.
