Trump hires Butch Bowers to defend him in impeachment in opposition to Capitol

South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers speaks to the SC House Ethics Committee on day one, Thursday, June 28, 2012.

C. Aluka Berry | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump has reportedly hired South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers to defend him on his impeachment trial, which the Senate Republican should propose on Thursday in mid-February.

Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., a Trump loyalist, told fellow GOP senators that Bowers had agreed to represent Trump on the case, according to the DC newsletter Punchbowl.

Trump was charged by the House of Representatives last week for instigating the deadly January 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol through his comments at a rally urging supporters to pressure Congress to win Joe Biden’s presidential election cancel.

The New York Times, which upheld Punchbow’s report, found that Trump’s other attorneys had “all gone” to represent him in his second impeachment trial.

These other attorneys included Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, who told Trump fans at the rally that there should be a “process through struggle” to reverse Biden’s victory.

Giuliani told ABC News on Sunday that he was a “witness” preventing him from defending Trump in the Senate.

Bowers has a track record of representing Republicans facing potential legislative sanctions.

He defended then-South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford as he faced a possible impeachment for leaving the state without notice to visit his Argentine mistress. The attorney later defended then governor of Sourth Carolina, Nikki Haley, in an ethics investigation.

Bowers also served as a special voting adviser in the US Department of Justice under President George W. Bush.

Bowers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hours after the news broke about Bowers, Senate Minority Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Said he had proposed to the Democratic leadership a timeline for trial-related preparation and legal briefing that would end with Trump’s trial sometime after February 13th would start.

There is no guarantee that the Senate Democrats, led by New York Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, will agree to McConnell’s schedule. It’s possible Democrats could try to start the process as early as next week.

“We received the proposal from Leader McConnell, which only deals with applications before the late afternoon trial. We will examine it and discuss it with him,” said Schumer’s spokesman Justin Goodman.

McConnell said the GOP caucus was “strongly united behind the tenet that the Senate institution, the office of President and former President Trump himself deserve a full and fair trial of his rights and the grave factual, legal and constitutional aspects respected. ” Questions at stake. “

“Given the unprecedented pace of the House’s process, our proposed schedule for the early stages provides modest and reasonable additional time for both sides to compile their arguments before the Senate begins hearing them,” said McConnell.

He also said it was “imperative that we not let a half-hearted process short circuit the due process that former President Trump deserves or damage the Senate or the presidency”.

McConnell said in the Senate on Tuesday that Trump was to blame for instigating the attack on the Capitol.

“The mob was fed lies,” McConnell said that day. “You were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”

But McConnell and other Republicans have refused to say how they will vote at the trial.

Democratic senators, and probably some Republicans at least, hope to condemn Trump and then vote for him never to become president again.

Sentencing Trump would require a guilty vote by two-thirds of Senate officials. If convicted, the Senate could prevent him by a simple majority from ever holding a federal office.

The chamber is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. But Vice President Kamala Harris has a tiebreaker vote that gives Democrats tight majority control over the Senate.

House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Told reporters Thursday that she would coordinate with Senate impeachment executives over the next few days.

“We had to wait for the Senate meeting,” Pelosi explained, explaining why she didn’t send the article to the upper chamber immediately after the House indicted Trump.

“You have now told us that you are ready to receive [the article of impeachment]”Said Pelosi about the Senate.” There are other questions about how a process will work, but we are ready. “

She added, “The whole world witnessed the President’s incitement.”

Pelosi also said the impeachment article will be broadcast soon.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Told an NBC reporter earlier Thursday that it was also unclear whether the trial was a “full trial with evidence and witnesses” or a faster one without either Processes will act.

Durbin noted that it may not be necessary to call witnesses because “not only are we lawyers, we are eyewitnesses to this crime”.

“You know, it’s not like, oh, did someone come to the Capitol,” said Durbin. “We know the Capitol cop was killed and we’ve seen the damage that was done.”

“In that regard, isn’t it what the hell was going on on that phone call with the Ukrainian President?” said Durbin, referring to Trump’s first trial in the Senate.

Trump was acquitted in his first impeachment trial after pressuring the Ukrainian leader to investigate the Biden family while withholding military aid from the country.

Democrats beat up Republicans in the first trial for refusing to admit witnesses.

Durbin added, “We saw the videos” of the uprising, many of which were posted online by Trump supporters who were part of the mob.

Trump’s spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests from CNBC for comment.

The Capitol riot began shortly after Trump spoke to supporters at a White House rally. A joint congressional meeting was held on the same day to confirm the results of Biden’s election.

Trump, his adult sons, Giuliani and other speakers reiterated claims that Trump did indeed win the election and that Biden’s victory was based on widespread electoral fraud. There is no evidence to support these claims.

Trump urged the crowd to march on the Capitol and press Republican lawmakers to stop confirming Biden’s election victory in several swing states.

Trump called on then-Vice President Mike Pence by name to refuse to accept the results even though Pence had no constitutional authority to do so.

“They will never retake our country with weakness,” Trump told his supporters during the speech in which he lied that he would march with them to the Capitol.

“You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

Thousands of his followers then went to the Capitol, where they surrounded themselves, and then broke into the complex, smashed windows, beat and brushed by the police and roamed the halls.

Five people died as a result of the riot, including a Capitol policeman who was attacked by Trump supporters and a woman who was fatally shot by police trying to get through a window in the speaker’s lobby near the chamber to crawl the house.

Senators and members of the House of Representatives fled to hide in safe places when some members of the mob went into congressional offices, stealing items and looking for lawmakers.

Trump failed to send reinforcements to the Capitol immediately when the siege unfolded. Instead, according to The Washington Post, he followed the chaos on television.

Legislators urge a full investigation into the Capitol uprising. On Thursday, the head of the house inspector, Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., asked FBI director Christopher Wray to investigate the role played by social media site Parler in the attack.

Maloney called on the agency to investigate Parler as a “potential agent of planning and incitement” and as a source of evidence for the attacks.

Parler went offline after Google and Apple booted it from their app stores and Amazon Web Services shut down the cloud service that supported its website.