Donald Trump is planning an impeachment defense that has experts worried.
Top members of his team have even called it quits.
Donald Trump made one demand that sent his legal team scrambling.
The easiest arguments former President Donald Trump could make to win the Senate impeachment trial is that it’s unconstitutional.
Trump is no longer president, is a private citizen and can’t be removed from office. It’s legally doubtful whether the Constitution allows for former presidents to be impeached after they have left office since it has never been tried before.
Sen. Rand Paul introduced a motion to dismiss the impeachment article on the ground of being unconstitutional and 45 Republican senators voted in agreement.
Paul commented that impeachment was already “dead on arrival.”
Republican strategist and Mitch McConnell ally Janet Mullins Grissom commented, writing: “If you’re Trump this is rather a no brainer. With Senate Rs aka the jury on record that impeaching former president is unconstitutional why spend money on lawyers?”
It was reported by CNN and The New York Times that Trump wanted to focus on claims that the election was stolen from him through election fraud, leading to a shake-up in Trump’s legal team.
“Multiple reports indicated that Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer who assembled the impeachment defense team, and Deborah Barbier, a criminal defense lawyer in South Carolina, were no longer going to be part of Trump’s team and that the decision was ‘mutual.’ Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney, has also reportedly left Trump’s team, and South Carolina lawyers Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris are also reportedly out.” The Daily Wire reported.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” Jason Miller, an adviser to the former president, told The Daily Wire. “In fact, 45 Senators have already voted that it is unconstitutional. We have done much work, but have not made a final decision on our legal team, which will be made shortly.”
Trump announced his new legal team on Sunday and trial lawyers David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor will be leading the effort.
“I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th President,” Castor said in a statement. “The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always.”
This indicates that Trump’s legal team is planning on making the unconstitutional nature of the impeachment the focus of their defense, despite the claims that CNN and The New York Times made.
The impeachment trial is set to begin the week of February 8th.
If you want Black Eye Politics to keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story and the rest of the breaking news in politics, please bookmark our site, consider making us your homepage and forward our content with your friends on social media and email.