ABANDON SHIP

Five Members of Trump’s Impeachment Legal Team Dump Him Just Over a Week Before Trial

The former president reportedly wanted to use the trial to keep peddling his “stolen” election conspiracy theories, and his legal team was not having it.

Five members of Donald Trump’s impeachment legal team have pulled out just over a week before the trial is due to begin, CNN reports. The last-minute mass exodus is reportedly the result of the former president wanting to use the trial to keep peddling his “stolen” election conspiracy theories, something his legal team was not on board with, according to CNN. The decision of Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier to depart before the Feb. 9 trial was said to be a mutual one with the Trump team. In addition to Bowers and Barbier—who were expected to be the lead attorneys in the trial—three others reportedly departed, including Josh Howard, Johnny Gasser, and Greg Harris. Trump was said to be “not receptive” to the strategies laid out by members of the legal team. Former Trump adviser Jason Miller, commenting to CNN on the legal shakeup, first pivoted to what he described as the “unconstitutional” impeachment effort that is “so bad for our country” before noting that a “final decision” was still yet to be made on the composition of Trump’s legal team.