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Former President Donald Trump's five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, according to people familiar with the case, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy.

It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team.

Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the changes. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris, from South Carolina, are no longer involved with the case, either.
No other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump's impeachment defense.

A person familiar with the departures told CNN that Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him rather than focus on the legality of convicting a president after he's left office. Trump was not receptive to the discussions about how they should proceed in that regard.

The attorneys had not yet been paid any advance fees and a letter of intent was never signed.

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Mr. Trump had pushed for his defense team to focus on his baseless claim that the election was stolen from him, one person familiar with the situation said. A person close to Mr. Trump disputed that that was the case but acknowledged that there were differences in opinion about the defense strategy. However, Mr. Trump has insisted that the case is “simple” and has told advisers he could argue it himself and save the money on lawyers. (Aides contend he is not seriously contemplating doing so.)

The decision for Mr. Bowers to leave was “mutual,” another person familiar with the situation said, adding that Mr. Trump and Mr. Bowers had no chemistry, a quality the former president generally prizes in his relationships. Mr. Trump prefers lawyers who are eager to appear on television to say that he never did anything wrong; Mr. Bowers has been noticeably absent in the news media since his hiring was announced.

Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, said that the former president and his aides had “not made a final decision on our legal team.”

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Mr. Trump has insisted that the case is “simple” and has told advisers he could argue it himself and save the money on lawyers.

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Originally posted by Cindysphinx:

Had the Dems simply ignored Trump, no one would be thinking about him right now.

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And what about the four Benghazi investigations?

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Originally posted by Lisa:
Apparently he got 2 new ones, one of whom, Bruce Castor, is my county's ex-DA. He's an ass whose most notable achievement as DA was refusing to prosecute Bill Cosby for drugging and taking advantage of women. He later served as one of 3 county commissioners, where he pretty much just whined the whole time because he was the minority party and the other 2 (democrats) were mean to him. He's been out of the public eye ever since, so I'm not surprised that he'd see Trump as his way to weasel himself back into the spotlight. Two losers who deserve each other.