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Republican Matt Gaetz on Wednesday offered to represent former President Trump in his second impeachment trial, telling Fox News he would be prepared to step down from his seat in the House of Representatives if invited to join the team Trump’s legal.
Gaetz, R-Fla., Told Fox News Wednesday that he was not invited to join the defense of the former president, but offered to do so.
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“I only regret having only one political career to give to my president,” Gaetz told Fox News.
Gaetz told Fox News he offered to represent Trump through Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, “weeks ago.”
“When Ethics said members of the House couldn’t do it, the conversations ceased,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz, however, told Fox News that if Trump asked him to join his defense, he would agree.
When asked if he would resign from the House to do so, Gaetz told Fox News: “If the law requires it, yes.”
Gaetz first pitched the idea on the podcast, War Room Pandemic, saying, “I would leave my seat in the House, I would leave my house.”
“I see this cancellation of the Trump presidency and the Trump movement as one of the biggest threats,” Gaetz said on the podcast. “I’m here to win, to win so much that I’m sick of it because that’s what was promised.” Gaetz’s comments come after the former president announced a new legal defense team, having parted ways with five of his lawyers a week before his Senate trial begins.
South Carolina attorneys Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, along with former federal prosecutors Greg Harris, Johnny Gasser and Josh Howard had left the defense team on Saturday, a source said, calling it a mutual decision.
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The source said lawyers left a difference of opinion on the direction of the defense argument.
Another anonymous source told The Associated Press that Bowers and Barbier left because Trump wanted them to make allegations of voter fraud during the trial.
Trump will now be represented by trial attorneys David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr.
The changes come shortly before the former president is accused of instigating an insurgency on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, leaving the exact members of his defense team and their approach in the air at a crucial time .
Trump was almost certain to be acquitted, however, as 45 out of 50 Republicans in the Senate voted earlier this month to dismiss the lawsuit on a point of order brought by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
The remaining five Republicans voted with Democrats to end debate on Paul’s motion that said Trump’s impeachment trial was unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.
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