EXPLAINER: What are special counsels and what do they do?
The appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department probes into the discovery of classified documents at the home and former office of President Joe Biden has focused renewed attention on the role such prosecutors have played in modern American history.
Lewinsky says Starr's death painful 'for those who love him'
Monica Lewinsky has released a tempered, compassionate response to the death Tuesday of Ken Starr, the former independent counsel whose investigation of Bill Clinton helped reveal her affair with the president and, she once wrote, made her life a “living hell.”.
3 lawyers readying arguments in high court abortion case
Supreme Court justices considering a major abortion case Wednesday will hear from just three lawyers: one representing the state of Mississippi, another representing Mississippi’s only abortion clinic and the last representing the Biden administration.
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Trump team hires 2 ex-prosecutors with ethics experience
(Senate Television via AP)COLUMBIA, S.C. – Donald Trump has added two more former federal prosecutors from South Carolina to his impeachment legal team, according to one of the lawyers. Harris and Gasser join a team that includes Butch Bowers, a noted South Carolina ethics and elections lawyer called an “anchor tenant” of the team by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It's in part on the advice of Graham that Trump is turning to the South Carolina team after other legal allies passed on the case. It’s a notable departure from his 2020 impeachment trial, when Trump had a stable of nationally known attorneys, including Alan Dershowitz, Jay Sekulow and Kenneth Starr. Bowers has years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including former South Carolina Gov.
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Lawyer group: Trump adds ex-prosecutor to impeachment team
(AP Photo/Bruce Smith, File)COLUMBIA, S.C. – Donald Trump is adding another South Carolina attorney to his impeachment legal team, according to a trial lawyer group in the state. Barbier joins Bowers, a Columbia attorney with years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including former South Carolina Gov. In part on the advice of Graham, the South Carolina senator, Trump is turning to Bowers and Barbier after other legal allies passed on the case. That's a notable departure from his 2020 impeachment trial, when Trump had a stable of nationally known attorneys, including Alan Dershowitz, Jay Sekulow and Kenneth Starr. If convicted, Trump could be barred from holding public office again, ending any hopes of mounting another White House bid in 2024.
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Trial ahead, Trump turns to ethics lawyer for his defense
Trump turned to Bowers, a familiar figure in Republican legal circles, after other legal allies passed on the case. The first impeachment trial turned on charges that Trump improperly solicited Ukraine’s help for his reelection campaign. Pat McCrory and the South Carolina Election Commission in litigation over voter ID laws, as well as a former South Carolina sheriff who pleaded guilty to embezzlement and misconduct in office. In 2018, he was attorney for University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley in her successful defamation suit against Missouri’s athletics director. With degrees from the University of South Carolina and College of Charleston, Bowers graduated from Tulane University School of Law in 1998.
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GOP lacks votes to block trial witnesses, McConnell concedes
Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON, D.C. – Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded late Tuesday, a potentially major hurdle for Trump's hopes to end the trial with a quick acquittal. McConnell told colleagues in a private meeting that he did not yet have the votes to block Democrats from summoning witnesses. Rand Paul of Kentucky called Bolton “disgruntled”’ and seeking to make money off his time at the White house. But John Kelly, Trump's former White House chief of staff, told an audience in Sarasota, Florida, that he believes Bolton. The White House has had Bolton's manuscript for about a month, according to a letter from Bolton's attorney.
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GOP defends Trump as Bolton book adds pressure for witnesses
That assertion could undercut a key defense argument — that Trump never tied the suspension of security aid to political investigations. Bolton writes that Trump told him he wanted to withhold security aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations. Trump's legal team has insisted otherwise, and Trump tweeted Monday that he never told Bolton such a thing. “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens," Trump said. They are being told that if there is agreement to summon Bolton, the White House will resist, claiming executive privilege.
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Trial highlights: Transcript talk, handshakes for defense
The White House lawyers had said it would be a “sneak preview” of their defense, continuing Monday, and they spent the morning rebutting the House impeachment managers’ arguments by charging that they were politically motivated. To begin, they read parts of a rough transcript of a July call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that is at the heart of the House impeachment case. While Democrats point to the conversation as a prime reason to remove the president, the White House lawyers say it points to Trump’s innocence. The White House team also displayed quick-cut video presentations on the Senate’s overhead screens, turning soundbites from key players in the impeachment case into fast-snapping clips. One woman, attorney Pam Bondi, is also on Trump’s team.
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Buckle up: What to watch as impeachment trial takes off
What to watch as presidential impeachment arguments get underway in the Senate for only the third time in American history. That maroons 100 chatty senators — including four Democrats in the heat of a nomination fight — for the serious constitutional business of the impeachment trial, for hours at a time. Senate rules say the trial must proceed six days a week — all but Sunday — until it is resolved. ___THE PROSECUTORSThey could be heard practicing speeches in the shuttered Senate chamber late into Monday night. 51: The number of senators who must agree on almost anything to make it happen during an impeachment trial.
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Trump team, House managers trade sharp views on impeachment
The dueling filings previewed arguments both sides intend to make once Trump's impeachment trial begins in earnest Tuesday in the Senate. New information from Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is being incorporated in the House case. White House attorneys and Trump's outside legal team have been debating just how political Monday's legal brief laying out the contours of Trump's defense should be. People close to the Trump legal team said Cipollone would deliver the president’s opening argument before the Senate and that Sekulow would follow. Starr and Dershowitz would have “discrete functions” on the legal team, according to those close to the legal team, who were not authorized to discuss the strategy by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Who's who on Trump's legal team for impeachment trial
(AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump’s legal advocates for his Senate impeachment trial will include a pair of well-known attorneys who have vigorously defended Trump on television and played roles in some of the most consequential legal dramas in recent history. Among those assisting White House counsel Pat Cipollone and longtime Trump attorney Jay Sekulow on the defense will be Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated former President Bill Clinton. A look at who's who:PAT CIPOLLONEThe current White House counsel, Cipollone is an unassuming and private figure who built a career around complex litigation. In the White House, he has forcefully defended Trump's right to executive privilege and argued that congressional investigators have no right to question White House staffers about their conversations with the president. Herschmann served various roles at the Southern Union Company, a natural gas utility, including as senior executive vice president, president and chief operating officer.
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Trump assembles a made-for-TV impeachment defense team
There are some signs of tension involving the president's outside legal team and lawyers within the White House. “I'm not a full-fledged member of the defense team," he told "The Dan Abrams Show" on SiriusXM. A Fox News host said on the air that Starr would be parting ways with the network as a result of his role on the legal team. Giuliani told The Associated Press that the president has assembled a “top-notch” defense team and he was not disappointed not to be included. The White House has instructed officials not to comply with subpoenas from Congress requesting witnesses or other information.