Donald Trump Reportedly Wants To Represent Himself In Impeachment Trial, Won’t Hire Lawyers
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives impeached former President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government by ordering a violent group of his supporters to storm the Capitol building and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The Senate trial will begin early next month and Trump is thinking about representing himself, according to New York Times reporter
Maggie Haberman. In a series of tweets posted Saturday evening, Haberman revealed that Trump has told advisers that he feels like he doesn’t need lawyers to defend him.
Trump allegedly believes that he can handle everything himself and save the money he would spend on a professional legal team. However, some of those close to the former commander-in-chief reportedly believe that he would not do well in the Senate or make a convincing case that he is not guilty.
Still, others are pushing Trump to go rogue. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has reportedly been encouraging the former president to represent himself, arguing that he would do a better job than professional attorneys.
“Bannon, who was talking to Trump ahead of his departure from DC and the day Trump went back and forth on pardoning him, is encouraging him to go to the senate himself. ‘He’s the only one who can sell it.'”
Trump may actually have no choice but to represent himself. CNN reported on Saturday evening that two lead attorneys on his team, Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, quit. Josh Howard, Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris are no longer involved either, according to the publication’s sources.
Per an individual familiar with the situation, the attorneys quit because the former commander-in-chief insisted that they focus on proving that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
In a statement, former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller seemed to confirm these developments.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country. 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,” Miller told CNN.
As Forbes noted, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani recently said that he won’t be able to participate in the case because he spoke at the protest that preceded the Capitol riots. Former White House lawyers Jay Sekulow and Pat Cipollone reportedly declined to participate as well.
