Former President Donald Trump has finally found lawyers to represent him during his impeachment trial in the Senate: a former prosecutor who refused to impeach Bill Cosby and an Alabama attorney with ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Bruce Castor and David Schoen will replace no fewer than five other attorneys who split days before his trial with Trump during strategy days to incite the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump reportedly wanted previous lawyers to pursue his false claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from him – the charge that led his supporters to carry out the deadly uprising.
It is not clear whether the new lawyers intend to use that strategy.
“It is an honor to represent the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, and the US Constitution,” Schoen said in a statement. statement issued by Trump.
Castor added, “The strength of our constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history.”
From 2002 to 2008, Castor was the Republican district attorney of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where he decided not to prosecute Cosby when Andrea Constand first charged the comedian with sexual assault, citing a lack of evidence.
Constand settled a lawsuit against Cosby and Castor’s successor filed suit against him. Cosby’s team tried to throw the case out by stating that Castor had struck a deal that if the comedian testified in the civil case, the statements would not be used against him in criminal court.
Cosby was eventually tried twice, was convicted and is in prison. Constand sued Castor for defamation in a case settled out of court, and the ex-DA filed a personal injury claim against the victim of sexual assault, arguing that Constand caused him to lose a 2015 bid for DA . That case was dismissed.
Schoen is a veteran trial attorney who has represented federal criminal suspects, including Trump friend Roger Stone, and plaintiffs in police misconduct and civil rights cases.
He was most recently in the headlines for meeting with pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein before his death in prison; Schoen said Epstein wanted him to lead his defense team.
Trump’s trial is scheduled to begin the week of February 8. If two-thirds of the senators vote to condemn him, the senate can vote by simple majority to dissuade him from fleeing office again.
However, on Jan. 26, 45 senators voted that the trial would be unconstitutional, making it unlikely that enough Republicans will vote to condemn.