Trump is unhappy with his impeachment attorney’s performance, sources say

by

Castor, who represents Trump alongside attorney David Schoen, made a meandering argument during the first day of the Senate impeachment process, including praise for the House’s impeachment managers for a presentation he said was “ well done. ”

Trump almost screamed as Castor struggled to get to the heart of his defense team’s argument that should be about the constitutionality of holding a trial for a president who is no longer in office. Considering that the legal team was assembled a little over a week ago, things went as expected, one of the sources told CNN.

Still, Trump’s allies were stunned when the lawyers switched speaking time at the last minute.

Castor’s discursive presentation featured long-standing praise for the Senate, including senators from his home state of Pennsylvania – Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Bob Casey – as they argued that the Senate should not hold the trial. He warned that a second impeachment trial in 13 months would “open the floodgates” to future impeachment measures, even making the baseless rhetorical suggestion that former Obama administration attorney general Eric Holder could be impeached.

The Senate ultimately voted 56-44 that the impeachment process is constitutional.

An adviser to Trump’s team gave a candid assessment of the messy opening day, emphatically asking, “What the hell is going on?”

The adviser said the former president could be in serious jeopardy if charged in criminal court, given his inability to attract a strong legal team for the impeachment process.

“Trump is stunned if anyone ever sues him. Nobody wants to work with him,” the adviser said.

Schoen had to present first, not Castor, two people familiar with the plan told CNN. But Castor told the Senate that Trump’s legal team “changed what we were going to do because we thought the House managers’ presentation was done right.”

After Castor gave in to Schoen, the tone of the defense changed dramatically. Schoen accused them of using impeachment as a political “ blood sport ” to try to prevent Trump from running again, accusing them of denying pro-Trump voters their right to vote.

Although the former president was dissatisfied with the early performance of his defense team, his staff remained confident that he was on the road to acquittal and that this would not change the outcome of the trial. Two separate sources close to Trump say he will remain low until the end of the trial, but talk to aides about how he can reappear and help Republicans around the midterm elections.

A separate senior adviser to Trump insisted that Castor was trying to lower the emotional temperature in the Senate before Schoen began his presentation.

“This is about lowering the temperature after the emotionally charged opening of the Democrats, before unleashing the hammer on the unconstitutional nature of this impeachment witch hunt,” the adviser said.

But even some GOP senators said they were unimpressed with the presentation.

Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas – who nonetheless voted the trial unconstitutional – bluntly told reporters, “ I thought the president’s attorney – the first attorney – went on and on and on and not quite the constitutional argument. “

“Finally the second attorney came in and, I thought, did well.” He quickly added, “But I’ve seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments and that was – it wasn’t one of the best I’ve seen.”

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was the only senator to vote differently from last month during a procedural vote on the constitutionality of the trial, told reporters that the “house managers were focused, they were organized,” and “made a convincing argument,” while, on the other hand, “President Trump’s team was disorganized. “

“They did everything they could except to talk about the question, and when they talked about it, they kind of skidded over it, almost as if they were ashamed of their arguments,” Cassidy said.

Similarly, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said, “Today should be an opportunity to be briefed on the constitutionality of whether or not you can move forward with an impeachment of a former president.”

“I thought that – that the House presented some pretty good, pretty good legal analysis. Frankly, I was really stunned by the first lawyer to run for former President Trump. I couldn’t figure out where he was going,” 45 minutes somewhere, but I don’t think he helped us better understand where he came from about the constitutionality of this, ”said Murkowski.

A source advising the Trump campaign said bluntly, “Be criticized by both sides. Yikes.”

Castor and Schoen, each with a history of involvement in controversial legal matters, were sued to lead Trump’s legal team a day after CNN first reported that five members of its defense had left abruptly. One point of friction with his previous team was that Trump wanted lawyers to focus on his claims of electoral fraud rather than the constitutionality of sentencing a former president.
A source close to the first Trump impeachment team said the former president’s current attorney should not be compared to the attorneys who represented him at his first trial.

“It’s hard to compare with our team,” said the source of Trump’s first impeachment team, noting that Bill Clinton impeachment veteran Judge Ken Starr, Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others. goods. “Different level of experience.”

Despite the criticism, after the session of the day, Castor simply said to reporters, “I thought we had a good day, thank you.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

.Source