U.S. President Donald Trump walks the southern lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, January 12, 2021.
Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump announced on Sunday the legal team that will handle his second Senate impeachment trial.
The announcement that lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor will lead Trump’s defense team came after a “mutual decision” to part ways with two South Carolina lawyers, Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were supposed to represent him.
A third lawyer, Joshua Howard, also left the defense team.
Castor is the former Pennsylvania district attorney who refused to sue Bill Cosby in 2005 over a meeting with Andrea Constand the previous year. Cosby was convicted of sexually assaulting Constand in 2018 after another prosecutor investigated the case.
Schoen is a civil and criminal defense attorney with offices in Alabama and New York.
The House handed its impeachment article to the Senate last week, accusing Trump of “inciting insurrection” for his role in the January 6 deadly riot on the United States Capitol.
The impeachment trial is scheduled to begin on February 9.
In a statement, Trump’s office said Schoen had already been preparing with other advisers and that both lawyers believe the impeachment is unconstitutional.
The statement noted that 45 Republican senators voted on Tuesday to support this claim. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Trump should be held responsible for encouraging the rebellion, calling it “the most despicable thing any president has ever done”.