WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump has spent much of his career using powerful lawyers to carry out his bids. Now he’s struggling to find first-class help when he needs it most.
Since the loss of the November election to President Joe Biden, Trump has been suffering from lawyers. Established firms shied away from its baseless allegations of electoral fraud. Those he did hold made basic mistakes in things that were quickly dismissed as worthless. His personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was ridiculed for appearing before a federal judge in an election case.
With his legal options to contest the election exhausted, Trump still needed a team to represent him in his historic second impeachment trial on charges of causing the deadly uprising in the Capitol on January 6. A team of South Carolina attorneys was detained and then withdrawn, so Trump was left with one attorney from Pennsylvania and another from Alabama, leaving them with only days to prepare.
Celebrity clients tend to be strongly drawn to ambitious lawyers, but Trump’s rocky relationship with his attorneys shows the limits of taking cases with questionable merits. His fraud allegations were dismissed by courts, his attorney general and other prominent Republicans.
Trump’s impeachment lawyers began their defense by misspelling the words “United States” in their letter. And their first presentation at trial was panned by even some of Trump’s most ardent supporters.
Trump smoked from his spot in Mar-a-Lago, and some in his circle said he should fire his lawyers. But he may not have many more options. And his legal danger is mounting, most recently with a new criminal investigation into his election behavior in Georgia.
Trump has often used litigation as a weapon. He and his eponymous company have been involved in numerous lawsuits, from million-dollar real estate disputes to personal defamation cases and battles with casino executives. He also regularly threatens legal action.
But apart from a few loyal attorneys like Giuliani and a small, powerful team representing him on New York-related investigations, it’s not clear which heavy hitters still represent him.
His impeachment team, David Schoen, a frequent television legal commentator, and Bruce Castor, a former Pennsylvania prosecutor, had a little over a week to prepare after Trump and his previous defense team broke up because they refused to take Trump’s claim of electoral fraud as a defense.
Castor, who has been criticized for his decision as a prosecutor not to charge actor Bill Cosby with a sex crime case, began an elaborate presentation. Unlike the Democrats, who relied on a carefully structured and planned presentation to advocate the constitutionality of the proceedings, Castor only had a yellow pad of handwritten notes in front of him and seemed to be speaking out of control.
While Trump was watching TV, he privately complained that his defense looked weak compared to that of the Democrats, who showed an emotional video of the January 6 chaos that shook Capitol Hill. Former Trump economic adviser, Peter Navarro, who is in close contact with the former president, called on him to sack his legal team and embrace a new approach aimed at Trump’s baseless allegations of mass electoral fraud.
Navarro told The Associated Press he had “warned the president that his legal team would be abandoning him.”
Trump’s first impeachment team was led by noted attorney Alan Dershowitz, as well as then White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and Jay Sekulow, who has taken cases before the Supreme Court.
Dershowitz was stunned by Castor’s performance and said on Newsmax, “I have no idea what he’s doing.” Several Republican senators were equally stunned. Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said Trump’s team has done “a terrible job.”
When Castor was asked about the criticism on Wednesday, he told reporters, “Only one person’s opinion matters.” Castor was asked if Trump expressed his disapproval and replied, “Far from it.”
Trump was hardly satisfied with the outcome of his election battles in court, no matter who the lawyers were. Some of them made bizarre claims that courts were being broadcast quickly.
Attorney Sidney Powell, whom Trump had said was part of his team of “ great lawyers and representatives, ” falsely suggested that a supplier of vote-counting equipment had been created in Venezuela to hold elections for Hugo Chavez, who was in 2013 died, manipulate. distanced himself from Powell and said she practiced the law on her own. The seller, Dominion Voting Systems, sued Powell for defamation last month and seeks $ 1.3 billion.
The day after the riot, a lawyer who represented Trump’s campaign in an election case in Philadelphia asked to withdraw from the case, and filed a stunning motion in federal court saying Trump was “ using the attorney’s services. to commit a crime ‘and’ it says action that the lawyer finds repugnant. ”
Dozens of judges have dismissed Trump’s election claims, sometimes with devastating criticism. But the power of those false claims persisted with the die-hard Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
While Trump’s comments at a pre-riot rally have drawn attention to his calls to “ fight, ” his lawyers have been promoting false and unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud in several states for nearly two months, which are widely promoted by conservatives. media and on social media.
But after impeachment, Trump’s legal needs are likely to accelerate, with investigations in New York, Georgia and possibly Washington, DC, where prosecutors have the power to sue.
“You don’t want the last person standing in America who is on the bar and is willing to take your case as your representative,” said Jessica Levinson, director of the Public Service Institute at Loyola Law School.
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Richer reported from Boston and Merchant reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Eric Tucker in Washington, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, SC contributed to this report.