One Week Before Impeachment Trial, Trump Replaces Legal Team

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Former U.S. President Donald Trump replaced his legal team just over a week before the start of his impeachment trial.

On the 31st (local time), Trump's side announced that they had recruited two lawyers, Davis Shaun and Bruce Castor Jr., to respond to the impeachment trial.

In a statement, Trump's side said, "Shaun is already preparing for the impeachment trial along with other advisors on the legal team." This came a day after the original five lawyers resigned due to conflicts over the direction of the defense.

The two newly appointed lawyers expressed confidence in victory in their statement, saying, "The power of our Constitution is being tested more than ever in history."

Earlier, major foreign media such as CNN reported that all members of the legal team, including Butch Bowers, who led the impeachment trial legal team, Deborah Barbier, Johnny Gasser, Greg Harris, and Josh Howard, had resigned.

The background of the entire legal team's resignation is attributed to conflicts arising from former President Trump insisting on the 'election fraud' frame. The legal team has raised the key issue of whether it is legally valid to subject a president to an impeachment trial after leaving office.

With the impeachment trial preparation schedule tight, uncertainty is growing for former President Trump. The Senate, which passed the second impeachment resolution on the 13th, seven days before Trump's term ended, sent the impeachment resolution to the Senate on the 25th. The House of Representatives also passed an impeachment resolution in late 2019 over the 'Ukraine scandal.'

The impeachment threshold is two-thirds of the 100 senators, which is 67 votes. In a 50-50 split between the two parties, even if all Democrats vote in favor, at least 17 Republicans must also agree.

The New York Times (NYT) reported that Trump is facing a crisis in funding legal costs related to the impeachment trial due to decreasing 'refusal donations' every month. According to the NYT, large donations to Trump and the Republican Party have been cut off one after another since the congressional violence incident involving Trump supporters. 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 served as legal counsel during the first impeachment, was paid by the Republican National Committee (RNC), but the NYT said 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 spend tens of millions of dollars raised not as political momentum but entirely on impeachment litigation.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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