WASHINGTON – Donald Trump announced on Sunday that a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney with a background in civil rights work will lead his defense team for impeachment a day after it was announced that the former president had parted ways with a previous line of lawyers.
The two who represent Trump are attorney David Schoen, a frequent legal commentator on television, and Bruce Castor, a former Pennsylvania prosecutor who has been criticized for his decision not to charge actor Bill Cosby on a sex crime case.
Both attorneys made statements through Trump’s office saying they were honored to take the job.
“The strength of our constitution is being tested like never before in our history. It’s strong and resilient. A document that has been written for all ages, and it will overcome partyhood once and for all, ”said Castor, who served as district attorney for Montgomery County, outside of Philadelphia, from 2000 to 2008.
Sunday’s announcement was designed to foster a sense of stability around the Trump defense team as his impeachment process approaches. Several South Carolina attorneys would represent him at the trial, which begins the week of February 8.
Trump, the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice, will stand trial in the Senate on charges that he incited his supporters to storm Congress on Jan. 6 when lawmakers gathered to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
Republicans and Trump aides have made it clear that they intend to make a simple argument in the trial: Trump’s trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.
“The Democrats’ efforts to overthrow a president who has already left are completely unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said.
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Many legal scholars say there is no impediment to impeachment lawsuits despite Trump leaving the White House. One argument is that state constitutions predating the US Constitution allowed impeachment after officials left office. The drafters of the Constitution have not specifically ruled out the practice either.
Castor, a Republican who was the elected district attorney of Pennsylvania’s third most populous county, decided not to charge Cosby for an alleged sexual encounter in 2004. In 2015, he ran to court again and his verdict in the Cosby case was a major issue used against him by the Democrat who defeated him.
Castor has said that he personally felt that Cosby should have been arrested, but that the evidence was not strong enough to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
In 2004, Castor ran unsuccessfully to the Attorney General. In 2016, he became the top lieutenant of the controversial state attorney general – Kathleen Kane, a Democrat – when she was charged with leaking proprietary investigative information to infect a rival and lie to a grand jury. She was convicted, leaving Castor for a few days as acting state attorney general.
Schoen met with financier Jeffrey Epstein about joining his defense team on sex trafficking charges just days before Epstein committed suicide in a New York prison. In an interview with the Atlanta Jewish Times last year, Schoen said he had been contacted by Trump employee Roger Stone before Stone’s trial and was later detained to hear his appeal. Trump commuted Stone’s sentence and then pardoned him.
Neither Schoen nor Castor immediately answered phone messages asking for comment Sunday evening.
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Eric Tucker and Jill Colvin from The Associated Press wrote this story. AP writers Marc Levy in Harrisburg and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.