Former President Donald J. Trump’s new impeachment lawyer, Butch Bowers, is a South Carolina-based attorney who was arranged through Senator Lindsey Graham and has a long history of representing politicians in his home state.
Mr. Bowers will lead Mr. Trump’s defense in the eventual trial for his second impeachment, Mr. Graham and Jason Miller, an adviser to Mr. Trump, confirmed.
The search capped weeks of frantic searching for an attorney willing to represent Mr. Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot by his supporters at the Capitol. The former president’s lawyers from the first impeachment trial had made clear that they did not want to be a part of the looming trial. And despite the desire of Mr. Trump’s longtime friend and personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to be involved, the former president has made clear that he won’t be.
Mr. Bowers is well known in the insular world of South Carolina politics, where he represented two former governors, Mark Sanford and Nikki Haley.
Mr. Graham announced on a Senate Republican conference call that Mr. Bowers would be representing the president in the trial and had been retained Wednesday night, a person on the call confirmed. Mr. Graham’s announcement was first reported by Punchbowl News.
Mr. Bowers and Mr. Graham did not respond to requests for comment.
Operatives in South Carolina generally said that Mr. Bowers would be a good fit for the president, and that he had a profile that would be useful with some of the senators.
“He’s not a MAGA Republican so it will help with establishment Republicans,” said Bakari Sellers, a Democratic strategist based in South Carolina.
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