Government

Trump Hires Impeachment Lawyer Who Is... Competent???

Wait, that can't be right.

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“You’re hired!” (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

So much for the dream of Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani working their magic in the well of the Senate. Trump campaign apparatchik Jason Miller confirmed the news yesterday that the former president has hired South Carolina lawyer Butch Bowers to represent him in the upcoming impeachment trial on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recommendation.

After Rudy Giuliani came to the belated realization that he’s likely to be a witness and is thus unable to appear as counsel, there were reports that the impeachment might be delayed because Trump couldn’t find a lawyer willing to work for him.

But with the House signaling it plans to transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, Bowers’ hiring averts the need to go with one of the motley crew that represented the president in his disastrous election suits.

“Well, I think he’s going to have a good [legal team],” Graham told reporters. “Butch Bowers, I think, will be the sort of anchor tenant. But I’ve known Butch for a long time, solid guy. And I think over time, they’ll put the team together.”

And indeed Bowers does look to be a solid lawyer, with wide experience representing wayward politicians. He defended former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on ethics charges when she was a state legislator and argued for the state’s current Governor Henry McMaster when he faced allegations of accepting excessive contributions. He even has impeachment experience as lawyer for former Governor Mark Sanford after he took his infamous walk on the Appalachian trail.

That’s a big step up from the Elite Strike Force Super Friends JD Esquire Task Force!

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It’s unclear whether Bowers will go with the “perfect, perfect incitement” defense or take up the current Republican Senate position that impeachment after the president leaves office is illegal. If so, he can bring back law professor Jonathan Turley for a reprise of his last impeachment performance. Indeed, Turley is already auditioning for the part with a Fox editorial suggesting that the former president should challenge the impeachment in court on grounds that he is now beyond congress’s jurisdiction.

“On its face, the planned impeachment trial is at odds with the language of the Constitution, which expressly states that removal of a president is the primary purpose of such a trial,” he wrote. “At the time, Trump will be neither a president nor in office. He will be a citizen and would be best served legally to forgo the trial entirely as extraconstitutional and invalid.”

To the surprise of exactly no one, this is odds with Turley’s own position in a 1999 Duke Law Review article, as noted by University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck.

In fact, Turley completed the triple axel of flip flops with an editorial in The Hill condemning Democrats for seeking to “gut not only the impeachment standard but also free speech” by impeaching a president for telling a mob of crazed insurrectionists to march on the Capitol and “fight.” Back in 1998, Turley was all for Congress impeaching President Clinton for conduct which was unethical but not illegal. In 2021, they really should “look[] to the criminal code to weigh impeachment offenses.”

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So, will Bowers bring back Turley for another round? Will he treat Giuliani as a friendly or hostile witness? And will we ever escape from 2020?

Hooboy, can’t hardly wait.

Columbia lawyer to represent Trump at impeachment trial: ‘It’ll be interesting to watch’ [Post and Courier]
Jonathan Turley: Trump impeachment trial – why his best defense may be no defense [Fox]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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