Donald Trump’s legal team quits a week before his second impeachment trial

Trump is the first President in history to be impeached twice

Donald Trump's entire legal team have quit just over a week before the former President faces his second impeachment trial. On Sunday, it was confirmed that five members of his defence team had left. Lead attorney Butch Bowers, who is believed to have put together the team, has quit, along with Deborah Barbier, Johnny Gasser, Greg Harris and Josh Howard. Bowers and Barbier were both expected to serve as lead attorneys, and sources told CNN that it was a mutual decision to leave the trial. CNN also reported that there was friction between Donald Trump and his team on how to approach the trial. Trump reportedly wanted to continue his claims that there was mass voter fraud and that the election was stolen from him - a claim there is little substantial evivdence of - while the legal team wanted to question the legality of impeaching a President once they had left office. Trump was apparently not receptive to this. The legal team had not yet received any payment and no letter of intent was signed.

Inbox: Trump announces new legal team pic.twitter.com/wczEwQIZJo

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 31, 2021

Donald Trump's second impeachment trial is set to begin on February 9th. He is being accused of incitement of insurrection, following his followers storming the US Capitol building in Washington. The violent events of January 6th left five people dead, and multiple people involved are now in custody. Joe Biden became President on January 20th, so Trump can no longer be removed from office. However, it is widely agreed one of the main reasons for the impeachment being pursued is that if found guilty, it would likely prevent him from running for office again, and derail any 2024 Presidential bid. Donald Trump faced his first impeachment trial in January 2020 but was acquitted.