The week
The defense of Trump’s impeachment has been dropped. Bannon is encouraging him to go to the Senate in person.
Five lawyers who were prepared to defend former President Donald Trump at his next Senate impeachment trial left his legal team, people familiar with the situation confirmed to CNN and The New York Times. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were supposed to be two of the top lawyers, are out, as are Josh Howard, Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris. No other lawyer has announced that he was involved in the case, so it appears that, for now, Trump is helpless. The lawyers allegedly left because of a disagreement over the legal strategy. Trump allegedly wanted them to press their unfounded allegations of widespread electoral fraud in last year’s presidential election, instead of focusing on convicting a former president after he left office is constitutional, an argument that seems to be the consensus among Republicans and the reason he ‘I will probably be acquitted. Bowers, a source said, had no chemistry with Trump and the decision to leave was reportedly mutual. It is unclear where Trump will go from here – his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani allegedly wants to take the case, but he is a potential witness at the trial because he spoke at the rally that preceded the Capitol’s deadly riot. Trump is accused of inciting, and the Times notes “almost all” Trump advisers blame Giuliani for impeachment in the first place. Considering that Republican Party senators have signaled that they would not vote to condemn, some are wondering why Trump would bother spending money on lawyers at this point. And here’s a statement that Trump made to advisers almost literally> https://t.co/zktWOIrUD6 – Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 31, 2021 Stephen Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, thinks the former president should go to the Senate himself because “he is the only one who can sell it.” Trump seems open to the idea, but advisers are against it. Read more at The New York Times and CNN. More stories from theweek.com Don’t look now, but vaccines can end the pandemic5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP Trump problem5 irrationally funny cartoons about the madness of the GameStop stock market