NC lawyer joins Trump’s impeachment defense team as Senate gears up for historic trial
A prominent Raleigh lawyer is joining former President Donald Trump’s legal team for the upcoming impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
Josh Howard is a white collar defense attorney with the local firm Gammon, Howard and Zeszotarski. He has long been involved in Republican politics.
He was chairman of the N.C. State Board of Elections under former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory from 2013 to 2016.
He was part of the team that investigated Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 1990s — both for the Whitewater financial scandal and the Monica Lewinsky affair. And he represented former Rep. David Lewis, once one of the most powerful Republicans in the state legislature, when Lewis was charged last year with federal crimes in a campaign finance scheme.
The news of Howard joining Trump’s team was first reported by NBC News, citing an anonymous source. A public legal filing in North Carolina federal court confirmed the news.
In the filing, Howard asked a U.S. District Court judge Wednesday for a continuance in a case. He wrote that he “has accepted a position on the defense team handling the pending impeachment trial of former President Trump” and is “obliged to spend roughly (the) next month in Washington, DC focused entirely and exclusively on that matter of historical and Constitutional significance.”
Trump was impeached on Jan. 13, while he was still president, for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump extremists. Five people died during the riot, including one police officer, as the mob breached the Capitol, damaged the building and sought members of Congress who were certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The article of impeachment was brought to the Senate on Monday evening. Senators were sworn in for the trial Tuesday, the same day 45 Republicans voted in support of a measure that called the trial unconstitutional because Trump is no longer the president.
The trial is set to begin Feb. 8. Even though the Senate is now evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, Trump appears likely to avoid conviction again. A conviction would require 67 votes — all 50 Democrats plus 17 Republicans.
Most Republicans have objected to holding the trial now that Trump is out of office, including both of North Carolina’s senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis. Only five Republicans opposed the effort to stop the trial from happening.
The Trump impeachment team is coming together as his trial in the U.S. Senate approaches. In addition to Howard, three lawyers from South Carolina are also joining the legal team, Columbia newspaper The State reported. They include Butch Bowers, who NBC reported will lead Trump’s legal team.
It’s unclear whether lawyer Rudy Giuliani will be involved, despite working as Trump’s lawyer in recent years. On Jan. 13, the day the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump, The Washington Post reported that Trump and Giuliani had a disagreement and Trump had told aides not to pay Giuliani for his legal work.
Family tradition
Howard, the son of a judge, graduated from Duke University and UNC School of Law, according to the biography on his firm’s website. He later assisted on George W. Bush’s Supreme Court nominations for John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
He isn’t the first in his family to represent Republican presidents facing impeachment, NBC News reports.
“His father, Malcolm Howard, a retired judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina, represented President Richard Nixon in his impeachment hearings,” NBC reported. “Nixon resigned before the House could vote on impeachment articles against him.”
According to a New York Times story from Aug. 7, 1974 — the day before Nixon resigned — Malcom Howard told The News & Observer that, “I’ll be very candid. I don’t know how we can defend the case on its merits.”
Trump impeached twice
Trump, in the months leading up to the Capitol riot, falsely claimed the election was fraudulent and rigged. In hopes of overturning the results in several key states, Trump pressured state officials and filed dozens of unsuccessful legal challenges.
The congressional certification, normally a routine procedural event, became a last stand for Trump. He urged supporters to gather in D.C., called on Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election and, during a pre-riot speech, encouraged the crowd to march to the Capitol.
During the riot, representatives, senators and Vice President Mike Pence were rushed from the chambers and into secure locations.
When Congress returned, its members certified the results later that night and into the next morning. Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Trump is the only president to be impeached twice. Trump did not resign when he was impeached in late 2019 by the U.S. House over a controversial call with the Ukrainian president. He was acquitted in the Senate in early 2020 with just one Republican, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, voting to convict him then.
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This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 7:49 PM.
