Four Columbia SC lawyers now make up core of Trump’s impeachment defense team

One lawyer is an insider’s insider, working mostly behind the scenes.

The other three are veteran criminal defense trial lawyers, known for being prepared to do battle for their clients.

All four — insider lawyer Butch Bowers and trial lawyers Deborah Barbier, Greg Harris and Johnny Gasser — are from Columbia.

They are the nucleus of former-President Donald Trump’s legal team in a high stakes drama in his second impeachment trial on the floor of the hallowed U.S. Senate. Their actions will likely be viewed by tens of millions on television and computer screens around the world.

The trial begins Feb. 9.

Trump is being tried for “high crimes and misdemeanors” tied to his alleged role in inciting a riot on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol that caused members of Congress to flee the House and Senate chambers. If found guilty by two-thirds of the senators, the Senate could vote to prohibit him from ever running for office again.

Barbier’s and Bowers’ names have been publicized earlier as being part of Trump’s legal team.

Harris and Gasser — who work together in the same small firm — have just been added, sources told The State newspaper on Thursday.

South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, played a major role in recruiting the four, starting with Bowers, 55, whom Graham had known for years in the state’s National Guard, according to press accounts. Bowers is a full colonel (one rank below a general) in the S.C. Air National Guard.

Bowers told The Washington Post earlier this week that he will be the “anchor tenant” — the chief defense lawyer — of Trump’s team.

A Raleigh, N.C., attorney, Josh Howard, also has been added to Trump’s defense team, The Raleigh News & Observer newspaper reported on Wednesday. Howard is a white collar defense attorney who has long been active in Republican politics in North Carolina.

Howard made a legal filing in federal court asking for a continuance in a case and saying he expected to be in Washington for a month on Trump’s case, the Raleigh paper reported.

Other lawyers who have been talked about as members of the team are George Washington Law School constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley and Harvard law professor and legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, sources familiar with the team said.

Bowers, 55, has made a career out of representing Republican officials and Republican interests, mostly in South Carolina but also in North Carolina. Among his cases last year, for example, he represented former Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone when Boone pleaded guilty to misconduct and embezzlement, as well as the S.C. Election Commission in a successful appeal in an election case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barbier, 51, Gasser, 58, and Harris, 59, are all veteran former federal prosecutors who worked out of the Columbia office on major cases, working with a range of federal agents from the FBI, DEA and other departments. Each has forged successful criminal defense practices out of their offices in old-fashioned two-story houses in downtown Columbia.

“They will be a formidable team,” says Columbia defense lawyer Jack Swerling, one of the deans of the state defense bar who has practiced criminal law in South Carolina for 46 years. “I’ve faced each one of them in court, and I’ve worked with each one on the same side. They are bright, talented, hard-working, attentive to detail and they like being in the arena.”

Here’s a sketch of each one:

▪ Barbier — As a former assistant U.S. attorney in Columbia, Barbier’s high profile cases included prosecuting an illegal interstate cockfighting operation based in Lexington County that had been penetrated by an undercover agent who took videos with a hidden camera. She helped prosecute former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin, convicted in 2010 on federal racketeering charges.

In a 2012 interview about her work, Barbier said the federal court “is not a place for amateurs,” and to be a good trial lawyer “you have to have a very thick skin.” Barbier’s father was an FBI agent.

After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office and starting her own firm in 2012, Barbier has been involved in a number of high profile cases, including being one of several defense attorneys hired by state-run electric utility Santee Cooper after the utility’s venture into constructing a nuclear power plant in Fairfield County failed.

Barbier also represented Joey Meek, an associate of white supremacist killer Dylann Roof. Meek was sentenced to prison for 27 months in prison. Police say he withheld information about Roof’s identity while a nationwide manhunt was underway to locate the man who killed nine African Americans at a Charleston church. Roof is now on federal death row.

Another Barbier client was former high-profile Republican consultant Richard Quinn Sr., a target in special prosecutor David Pascoe’s State House corruption probe. In 2017, Barbier helped get criminal charges dropped against Quinn, whose firm, First Impressions, paid a $3,000 fine for failing to register as a lobbyist.

▪ Harris — After working with the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in Columbia prosecuting state crimes ranging from DUI to murder, Harris became an assistant federal prosecutor specializing in white collar crimes and drug cases.

Harris, a former chairman of the S.C. Ethics Commission, has been involved in a number of high profile cases and clients. Several years ago, he was former Gov. Nikki Haley’s expert witness on an ethics act inquiry into her conduct as a state lawmaker. Harris also successfully represented Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin in a case before the Ethics Commission where a Benjamin trip to Florida was questioned.

Harris also represented Rachel Duncan, an accountant for the S.C. Hospitality Association, in connection with her financial crimes that were part of a complex case involving a national manhunt and the suicide of the association’s executive director, Tom Sponseller.

Harris “has won criminal trials in every part of the state and successfully represented clients in federal and state courts in Greenville, Charleston, Florence, Sumter, Spartanburg, Aiken and in many smaller towns across South Carolina,” his firm biography states.

▪ Gasser — For nine years, Gasser had the number two position in the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, after which he became a supervising prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office over violent crimes. He rose to acting and then interim U.S. attorney for the South Carolina.

Gasser’s biography on his firm’s internet site says he has handled more than 150 jury trials, most of which were violent felony cases, and prosecuted or helped prosecute some 400 homicide cases, including eight death penalty cases. Gasser has also “successfully” represented numerous doctors, lawyers, stock brokers, accountants, and business owners and executives, his biography states.

Harris and Gasser both represented former State Rep. Rick Quinn Jr., R-Lexington, who resigned from office after being prosecuted for misconduct in office by special prosecutor David Pascoe.

Harris, Gasser and Bowers also represented former S.C. Lt. Gov. Ken Ard in his 2012 conviction for major ethics crimes, including converting campaign funds for personal expenses and giving money to people who then contributed to his political campaign. Ard could have gone to prison but the lawyers got him probation.

Bowers, Barbier, Gasser and Harris are members of small law firms.

No lawyers from large Columbia-based legal firms, such as Nexsen Pruet and Nelson Mullins, have their lawyers on Trump’s defense team.

“Some of those big law firms may be concerned their corporate clients would not look favorably on representing Trump after the riot at the Capitol,” Swerling said.

Nelson Mullins general counsel Jim Gray said he didn’t know why any of his firm’s lawyers weren’t on Trump’s legal team. “I wish I could be of more help,” Gray said.

A Nexsen Pruet spokesman declined comment.

Nexsen Pruet has lawyers who would make good additions to Trump’s team include Billy Wilkins, a former federal judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and Mark Moore, a former assistant U.S. Attorney known for his especially aggressive legal approach.

Nelson Mullins has former U.S. Attorney Bart Daniel, who oversaw corruption prosecution in the General Assembly in the 1990s, as well as former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, who led Congressional hearings into issues surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It’s not always easy to be a Trump lawyer. In early January, a prominent Washington, D.C., law firm pressured one of its attorneys to resign after it was disclosed that she was helping Trump push false claims about election fraud.

Trump has also been known to disparage lawyers he’s hired or favored, such as his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump’s impeachment trial is expected to be quite a battle. The U.S. House of Representatives has nine impeachment managers, including former prosecutors, on its impeachment team.

This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 4:46 PM.