After abruptly parting ways with his three lawyers, former US president Donald Trump has named another two to defend him in his impeachment trial in Senate starting on February 9.
David Schoen and Bruce Castor will defend Trump in the trial, said a Trump’s office statement.
Schoen had already been helping Trump and advisers prepare for the proceedings, added the statement.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barberi, two South Carolina lawyers, and Joshua Howard left the Trump defense team on Saturday.
The Senate will consider an article of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives on January 13 charging Trump with inciting his supporters on January 6 to attack the Capitol. The rampage left five people dead.
Trump is due to file a response to the impeachment charges on Tuesday.
Forty-five Senate Republicans backed a failed effort last week to halt impeachment trial, in a show of party unity that some cited as a clear sign Trump will not be convicted of inciting insurrection at the Capitol.
Schoen previously represented Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted in November 2019 of lying under oath to lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump pardoned Stone in December last.
Castor is a former Pennsylvania district attorney known for his decision not to prosecute entertainer Bill Cosby in 2005 after a woman accused Cosby of sexual assault. In 2017, Castor sued Cosby’s accuser in the case for defamation, claiming she destroyed his political career in retaliation.
Cosby, 83, is now serving a three-to-10-year sentence in a state prison near Philadelphia after being found guilty in a 2018 trial of drugging and raping a onetime friend at his home in 2004.
