New top story from Time: Trump Parts With Impeachment Lawyers as Trial Nears

https://ift.tt/3ovIt25

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers just over a week before his Senate trial is set to begin, two people familiar with the situation said Saturday.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, are no longer with Trump’s defense team. One of the people described the parting as a “mutual decision” that reflected a difference of opinion on the direction of the case. Both insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

One said new additions to the legal team were expected to be announced in a day or two.

The upheaval injects fresh uncertainty into the makeup and strategy of Trump’s defense team as he prepares to face charges that he incited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. However, all but five Senate Republicans this week voted in favor of an effort to dismiss the trial before it even started, making clear a conviction of the former president is unlikely regardless of his defense team.

Greg Harris and Johnny Gasser, two former federal prosecutors from South Carolina, are also off the team, one of the people said.

According to a different person with knowledge of the legal hires, Bowers and Barbier left the team because Trump wanted them to use a defense that relied on allegations of election fraud, and the lawyers were not willing to do so. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the situation and requested anonymity.

Trump has struggled to find attorneys willing to defend him after becoming the first president in history to be impeached twice. He is set to stand trial the week of Feb. 8 on a charge that he incited his supporters to storm Congress before President Joe Biden’s inauguration in an attempt to halt the peaceful transition of power.

After numerous attorneys who defended him previously declined to take on the case, Trump was introduced to Bowers by one of his closest allies in the Senate, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Bowers, a familiar figure in Republican legal circles, had years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford against a failed impeachment effort that morphed into an ethics probe.

Bowers and Barbier did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday evening.

Republicans and Trump aides have made clear that they intend to make a simple argument in the trial: Trump’s trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.

While Republicans in Washington had seemed eager to part ways with Trump after the deadly events of Jan. 6, they have since eased off of their criticism, weary of angering the former president’s loyal voter base.

CNN was first to report the departure of the lawyers.

____

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Comments

FOX NEWS: Canine influenza outbreak: What dog owners need to know A canine influenza outbreak in Los Angeles is drawing up concern among pet owners on the West Coast.

Canine influenza outbreak: What dog owners need to know A canine influenza outbreak in Los Angeles is drawing up concern among pet owners on the West Coast. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/lTOH3qM

New top story from Time: McDonald’s Announces New Meal Collab with Rapper Saweetie, Building on Wildly Successful Musician Collabs

https://ift.tt/3BTUwhw Ten crispy chicken nuggets, medium fries and a Coke: a classic McDonald’s order. But add sides of cajun and sweet chili sauces and a collectible purple box and you’ve just placed an order for the BTS Meal, this summer’s collaboration between the seven-member Korean pop sensation and the fast food giant. It was a small addition, yet on a quarterly earnings call this week, McDonald’s partially credited a 25% sales increase in the U.S. to the collaboration. Launched in late May and officially concluded on June 20, the BTS Meal followed a history of big-ticket star collaborations between McDonald’s and buzzy parts of pop culture. And on July 29, McDonald’s announced the next celebrity to receive a meal treatment: 28-year-old Californian rapper Saweetie , whose song “Best Friend” with Doja Cat went platinum this year. Her meal: a Big Mac, 4-piece chicken nuggets, fries, Sprite and sides of bbq and “Saweetie-N-Sour” sauce. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true...

New top story from Time: Bill Clinton and James Patterson on Their New Presidential Thriller, Political Tribalism and Advice for Trump

https://ift.tt/3bXnVfe Three years after writing a bestselling novel together , former President Bill Clinton and author James Patterson are back with their second: The President’s Daughter , published jointly by Knopf and Little, Brown and Company on June 7. The novel follows a former president and onetime Navy SEAL who must rescue his kidnapped daughter. Using Clinton’s intimate knowledge of the workings of the presidency and Patterson’s proven methods for plotting suspense, the two men have written a book that takes readers swiftly from political machinations in Washington to shocking violence in New Hampshire to terrorist hideouts in Libya. They’re betting that a page-turner presidential thriller is just the kind of book readers are craving right now: “I think they’re hungry for it,” says Clinton, who is himself a longtime fan of Patterson’s. Clinton and Patterson spoke to TIME by phone on May 20. (When he joined the call, Clinton said he had just finished talking with U...

India to play critical role in providing coronavirus vaccine to the world: Anthony Fauci https://ift.tt/2DOTRV5

Senior advisor to US President Donald Trump and top US infectious disease specialist, Anthony Fauci has claimed that India has a critical role to play in providing the world with an effective coronavirus vaccine. At a web conference organised by ICMR, Fauci stated that despite COVID-19 threat being grave, it was not essential now to conduct human challenge trials to expedite vaccine development.

Watch San Francisco’s Bike Network Bloom

Watch San Francisco’s Bike Network Bloom By Eillie Anzilotti From just a few stretches of scattered lanes in 2013, San Francisco’s protected bike network now stretches like a green web connecting more and more of the city. See how much has changed over the last eight years: In just the blink of an eye, San Francisco has become one of the most bike-friendly cities in the U.S. To date, San Francisco has 464 miles of bikeways, including: 42 miles of protected bike lanes 78 miles of off-street paths and trails 21 miles of buffered bike lanes 139 miles of striped bike lanes As we’ve expanded the network of safer bicycle routes through San Francisco, more people are choosing to ride bicycles for recreation and transportation every year. Since 2006, travel by bicycle has grown by 184 percent citywide. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, bike counts hit an all-time high: in 2019, approximately 52,000 bicyclists were observed at 37 locations during peak periods, a 14 percent incre...

FOX NEWS: Nathan's hot dog eating contest returns July Fourth — outdoors and with a crowd America’s most delicious wiener war returns to Coney Island on the Fourth of July – outdoors, under the sun and open to the public.

Nathan's hot dog eating contest returns July Fourth — outdoors and with a crowd America’s most delicious wiener war returns to Coney Island on the Fourth of July – outdoors, under the sun and open to the public. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3p35tr1

New top story from Time: Germany Has Officially Recognized Colonial-Era Atrocities in Namibia. But For Some, Reconciliation Is a Long Way Off

https://ift.tt/3fVRkaO The German government formally recognized colonial-era atrocities against the Herero and Nama people in modern-day Namibia for the first time, referring to the early 20th century massacres as “genocide” on Friday and pledging to pay a “ gesture to recognize the immense suffering inflicted.” “In light of the historical and moral responsibility of Germany, we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a statement , adding that the German government will fund projects related to “reconstruction and the development” of Namibia amounting to €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion). The sum will be paid out over 30 years and must primarily benefit the descendants of the Herero and Nama, Agence France-Presse reported . [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Although it’s a significant step for a once colonial power to agree such a deal with a former colony, there’s skepticism among some experts and ob...

Farmers' Protest: Situation normal at Ghazipur border, 'excess force' removed after midnight https://ift.tt/39qemEK

Hundreds of Bharatiya Kisan Union members stayed put on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway early on Friday, notwithstanding the Ghaziabad administration’s ultimatum to vacate the UP Gate protest site. A confrontation was building up at the UP Gate in Ghazipur even as frequent power cuts were witnessed in the evening at the protest site, where BKU members, led by Rakesh Tikait, are staying put since November 28.

FOX NEWS: College student sheds 100 pounds after years of dedication: 'The greatest accomplishment' Lori Odegaard, 24, from Fargo, North Dakota, tells Fox News about her incredible weight loss journey.

College student sheds 100 pounds after years of dedication: 'The greatest accomplishment' Lori Odegaard, 24, from Fargo, North Dakota, tells Fox News about her incredible weight loss journey. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/4Ccj9TY

New top story from Time: The 5 Best New Shows Our TV Critic Watched in March 2021

https://ift.tt/3sHZ3ia If my memories of 2019 are correct, March tends to be a month of anticipation even in relatively normal times. The snow has melted, but the trees are still bare. The temperature’s rising, but not consistently enough to put your winter coat in storage. All of that nervous early-spring energy is heightened this year, as we wait our turns in the vaccination queue and cross our fingers that the variants won’t halt our progress toward herd immunity. My favorite new TV shows of the month—a detective story set in Northern Ireland, a pulpy Spanish thriller, a mouthwatering kids’ show, a docudrama filled with ecstatic musical numbers and a nostalgic blast from reality TV’s primordial past—probably say a lot about how I’m dealing with that impatience: through the pursuit of big, bright, unapologetically entertaining distractions. Maybe you’d like to do the same? Bloodlands (Acorn TV) Although they officially ended in 1998, the decades of political conf...

My precise view

Search This Blog