Trump just added two prominent lawyers to his impeachment defense team. Is this the A Team?
WASHINGTON — President Trump plans on adding former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and the defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz to his legal team for his trial by the Senate, a person briefed on the plan said Friday.
Mr. Starr, whose investigation into President Bill Clinton’s sexual relationships led to his impeachment, will be joined by Robert Ray, who succeeded Mr. Starr as independent counsel and wrote the final report on Mr. Clinton, the person said.
Rounding out the team will be Mr. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus who became famous as a defense counsel for high-profile defendants like O.J. Simpson.
The White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, will lead the legal team.
Is this the A Team? Or the A.H. Team?
Some fresh reaction to Ken Starr being appointed to defend President Trump in his impeachment trial https://t.co/2eqEUgMXzc
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 17, 2020
Andrew McCarthy came up with it. Dersh will argue it. Senate Republicans will vote for it. https://t.co/B1toUufthq
— Armando (@ArmandoNDK) January 17, 2020
New members of Trump's impeachment legal team:
Ken Starr—lost his job as Baylor president amid allegations the university mishandled cases of football players accused of sexual assaults
Alan Dershowitz—accused of having sex w/ an underage girl provided to him by Jeffrey Epstein
— Jon Cooper ?? (@joncoopertweets) January 17, 2020
I get why Trump thinks this is a clever legal dream team. But I'd bet this is going to backfire in a big way. For everything Starr says to defend Trump, there will be clips of him taking the opposite position against Clinton. It will only underscore the Republican hypocrisy. https://t.co/Q2w4kZyqwH
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) January 17, 2020
Seriously – Ken Starr ('90s sex-fixated Javert) and Dershowitz (champ of OJ and Jeffrey Epstein) are gonna defend Trump at trial? This is way too on-the-nose.
Was Saul "Slippin' Jimmy" Goodman not available?— Dick Polman (@DickPolman1) January 17, 2020
Ken had a staff which included some very talented, very earnest people who believed in what they were doing. A number of them will, I suspect, be wondering what hit them today. https://t.co/TL5wGeWjDN
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) January 17, 2020
Speaking as a litigator, adding senior lawyers to a trial team on the eve of a trial isn’t likely to improve the quality of representation at the trial.
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 17, 2020
So the plan is to admit Trump did it? https://t.co/H2lSOe4s9m
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) January 17, 2020
Any discussion of Alan Dershowitz should be informed by this stomach-churning New Yorker article. https://t.co/l8XhfO9trg
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) January 17, 2020
Both Starr and Dershowitz were previously members of the Epstein defense team. https://t.co/917gkK4U4K
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 17, 2020
Trump has added Ken Starr to his defense team.
Now House Managers can point across the well and say: “There’s the same guy who interviewed @MonicaLewinsky’s ex-boyfriends, WH window washers and Kathleen Willey’s dentist. Now he doesn’t want us to hear from Bolton and Mulvaney.”
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) January 17, 2020
Wow, one of Trump's great accomplishments will be to take whatever remains of Ken Starr's reputation, douse it in gasoline and just light it on fire. And I'm totally here for that.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 17, 2020
A new defense:
?@realDonaldTrump? had his underwear on during the entire phone call.Trump expected to add Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz to impeachment defense team https://t.co/fBBh2J1wuK
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) January 17, 2020
Excellent. Trump’s defense will be a combination of the OJ defense and the Baylor defense. https://t.co/EuDILls2Wz
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 17, 2020
It was only a matter of time until Trump's defense became: So what if he did everything he's been accused of? All of it is totally fine! Hannity just showcased this line. It relies on institutional media failure to convey what it really means. New piece: https://t.co/XvfogiPx1g
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 17, 2020
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.