Former President Donald Trump and his legal team divorced a little over a week before his Senate indictment would begin on a charge that he incited the riot at the Capitol earlier this month.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, known for defending a string of South Carolina politicians, pulled out of Trump’s team with former federal prosecutors Greg Harris, Johnny Gasser and Josh Howard on Saturday, Fox News reported Sunday.
The report quoted a source as saying that it was a mutual decision on the direction of the defense argument.
The House charged Trump on Jan. 13 on a charge of “inciting an uprising” with ten Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats.
The trial is set to begin on February 9.
The former president is accused of firing a crowd of his supporters who stormed law enforcement on January 6 and stormed the Capitol, smashed doors, smashed windows and entered the building.
Five people died as a result of the chaos, including a Capitol police officer who succumbed to his injuries to defend the federal building.
New lawyers are expected to join the legal team this week to defend Trump in the Senate.
Bowers and the other lawyers do not agree with Trump who wants them to base their defense on allegations that the November 3 presidential election was full of fraud and that it was stolen from him, the Associated Press reports.
President Biden was inaugurated on January 20th.
While the House voted for the second time to accuse Trump, he is expected to be acquitted in the Senate because it is unlikely that 17 Republicans will vote to be convicted.
In total, 45 of the 50 Republicans in the Senate voted to dismiss the trial because it was unconstitutional, citing that Trump is already out of office, which is the whole point of accusation.