Less than two weeks before his second indictment, former President Trump separated from two key members of his legal team. South Carolina Attorney Butch Bowers, who is expected to be the attorney general, and Deborah Barbier is no longer part of his team, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Saturday night.
“The Democrats’ attempts to accuse a president who has already left office are completely unconstitutional and so bad for our country. In fact, 45 senators have already voted that it is unconstitutional. We have done a lot of work, but have not.” a final decision has not been made on our legal team, which will be made soon, ”Miller said.
A Trump adviser told CBS News the decision is reciprocal. CBS News contacted Bowers and Barbier for comment.
CNN, which reported the news for the first time, also said that three other lawyers had left the legal team.
The second indictment of Mr. Trump will begin on Feb. 9. The House has Mr. Trump was indicted on January 13 on a charge of “incitement to insurrection.” A week earlier, Mr. Trump urged his supporters to ‘fight like hell’ to stop Congress from counting the votes of the Electoral College, the final step in confirming President Joe Biden’s victory. A crowd of his supporters stormed into the U.S. Capitol, sending lawmakers on the run and delaying the count for nearly six hours. Five people were killed in the protest.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was a public figure in the former president’s fruitless struggle to reverse the election results, said he would not be part of Mr. Trump’s accused legal team, because he was at the protest. “Because of the fact that I can be a witness, the rules of legal ethics will prohibit me from representing the president as a trial counsel in the indictment,” Giuliani told CBS News on January 18.
Trump’s chief lawyers for his first indictment, including Trump’s longtime lawyer Jay Sekulow and former White House councilor Pat Cipollone, are not defending him this time. Cipollone, in particular, was one of the White House officials who summoned a group of Republican senators in the aftermath of the assault to persuade them to continue until Mr. Trump has left office, an assistant to Senator Mike Lee said on January 7.
Asked who Trump would represent, Miller said the team would likely make an announcement within the next few days.
Senator Lindsey Graham announced last week that Bowers, a Columbia attorney with an impressive record defending Republican politicians, is the ‘main anchor’ in Mr. Trump will be. Miller confirms that Bowers will join the team in a tweet on January 21st.
Bowers represented the former governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, when the legislature considered accusing him after admitting to lying to assistants about walking the Appalachian Trail when he was actually with his mistress in Argentina. . Sanford was eventually rather censored.
Bowers also represented Trump’s ally Nikki Haley when she faced ethical charges of illegal lobbying while still in the South Carolina legislature. Haley was approved in that investigation.
According to their guides, Bowers is a good member of the South Carolina Bar and the District of Columbia Bar. Bowers told the South Carolina Post and Courier earlier that he was looking forward to representing the former president.
According to the South Carolina Post-Courier, Barbier, who runs a small business in Columbia, joined the legal team earlier this week. In perhaps her most sensational case, Barbier defends Joey Meeks, a friend of Emanuel AME shooter Dylann Roof. Meeks, who pleaded guilty to telling others not to share with authorities that Roof was behind the massacre, was sentenced to 27 months in prison, according to the Post-Courier.
Barbier also defends a powerful political operator in South Carolina who was charged in 2017 with conspiracy and illegal lobbying at the State House, the Post-Courier reports. That case was eventually dropped.
Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.