Donald Trump impeachment: Ex-POTUS hires two new lead lawyers as previous legal team leaves

Donald Trump faces a trial by the Senate next week following his impeachment by the House on his last week as president a few weeks ago. The now-former president has hired two new lawyers to represent him in his defense as his previous legal team fell through.

Trump announced over the weekend that he has brought on Bruce L. Castor and David Schoen to represent him in his upcoming Senate trial. Trump faces possible conviction or acquittal for the charge of “inciting an insurrection” following his role in the Capitol riots last January 6. The impeachment by the House was on a bipartisan vote and also makes Trump the first president to get impeached twice. His hiring of Castor and Schoen also comes a day after his previous lawyers left along with a deadline given by the Senate for his team to produce a preliminary memo of his defense.

Trump’s new legal team has also been embroiled in controversy in the past. Schoen previously represented Trump associate Roger Stone and also previously met with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Castor was a former acting attorney general in Pennsylvania who faced backlash by advocates for victims of sexual crimes. Castor was also known for declining to prosecute Bill Cosby before he was ultimately convicted back in 2018. The previous legal team was reported to have made a mass resignation, citing disagreements with Trump over strategy and supposedly over the former president’s insistence that his defense would focus on his unfounded election fraud claims.

10 House Republicans joined the House Democrats in impeaching Trump, among them being top Republican Liz Cheney, who has now faced backlash from the former president’s supporters including her own colleagues. As the number three Republican in the House may face a tough primary ahead, she may find that she has the support of former President George W. Bush.

When asked if the former president plans to support Cheney in an upcoming primary in 2022, Bush’s chief of staff Freddy Ford said, “You’re a few months ahead of us -- we aren’t thinking about the next election cycle yet. But I do know that President Bush is planning to call VP Cheney tomorrow for two reasons: To wish him a happy 80th birthday, and to thank him for his daughter’s service.”