After Losing Support Donations and Legal Team... Trump Faces Dire Straits

Interest in Funding Methods for New Legal Team Retainer Fees

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Former U.S. President Donald Trump is facing a dire crisis as his entire legal team, which was supposed to serve as a shield just a week before his impeachment trial, has resigned. The "refusal donation" fundraising campaign, which claimed election fraud, is also rapidly declining, raising concerns about how the fees for hiring a new legal team will be financed.

On the 30th (local time), CNN raised the possibility that former President Trump might have to "defend himself" following the resignation of his entire impeachment defense legal team. Considering that the impeachment trial is a highly political event and the trial date is imminent, it is expected that forming a new legal team will not be easy.

CNN reported, "With the impeachment trial just a week away, no lawyer has stepped forward to take on the defense." Trump's insistence on the "election fraud" narrative is also exacerbating the difficulty in assembling a legal team.

Earlier, major foreign media reported that the entire legal team, including Butch Bowers, who led the impeachment defense team, Deborah Barbier, a former federal prosecutor who recently joined, as well as Johnny Gasser, Greg Harris, and Josh Howard, have all resigned.

The reason for the legal team's resignation appears to be differences in opinion regarding the defense strategy. The legal team had focused on whether it was legally valid to hold an impeachment trial after the president's term ended as the main issue of the lawsuit, but former President Trump wanted to continue pushing the "election fraud" claim, preventing consensus.

Trump is also facing a financial crisis for impeachment costs as the refusal donations for himself and the Republican Party have sharply decreased every month. The New York Times (NYT) reported that large-scale donations to former President Trump and the Republican Party have been cut off one after another since the congressional violence incident involving Trump supporters. According to the report, the average daily fundraising amount during the two weeks around the December 14th Electoral College vote dropped from $2.9 million to $1.2 million, less than half.

The $196,000 legal fee for Alan Dershowitz, who handled legal representation during the first impeachment, was paid by the Republican National Committee (RNC), but the NYT stated it is unclear what role the Republican Party will play in the Senate impeachment trial scheduled for the 9th. It also predicted that the political action committee (PAC) "Save America," established by Trump in November last year, will have to exhaust the tens of millions of dollars it raised on the impeachment lawsuit rather than political activities.

Former President Trump has faced impeachment trials twice in U.S. history but still exerts influence over the Republican Party. He has allocated about 25% of the refusal donations raised so far to the Republican Party. However, anti-Trump sentiment is spreading within the party, which has lost the White House and both houses of Congress to the Democrats.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican RNC, criticized the far-right Trump supporter group "QAnon," which led the Capitol riot, saying they "crossed the line" and "appear very dangerous." Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, who supported Trump's impeachment in the House, launched a PAC advocating for ending tolerance toward Trump and restoring traditional conservative values.

He appeared on NBC and announced the establishment of the "Country First" PAC, saying, "The country comes first." The Washington Post (WP) reported that the newly launched PAC will serve as a financial force to challenge the faction of former President Trump within the Republican Party and the leadership still aligned with Trump.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.