With just over a week left before his trial is set to begin in the Senate, all five of Trump's attorneys have quit. Will Trump represent himself instead?
CNN:
Former President Donald Trump's five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, according to people familiar with the case, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy.
It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation.
They quit because he wanted them to argue that the election was stolen and there was mass fraud as part of his defense rather than the legality of impeaching a president after they've left office.
CNN's Elie Honig explained to Victor Blackwell why his attorneys had every right to quit:
So lawyers generally have a very broad obligation to represent their clients. Criminal defendant, impeachment defendant, whatever it may be, but when you see something like this, what it tells you is, there was a difference in terms of not just necessarily strategy, but if a defense lawyer believes he is being made to make an argument that is either a lie, or dangerous, or unethical, that's where you see resignations like this.
So I think it makes a lot of sense. Look, if president Trump said to these lawyers, and by all appearances they are legitimate lawyers, several of them are DOJ alums and one is an ethics expert, if president Trump said I want you to go out there and argue this election was stolen, they have every right, and they did the right thing to say, no, we're out.
CNN's Jeff Mason was asked if there could be a further delay, but did not think there's any appetite for that since the proceedings were already delayed as part of a compromise.
