Donald Trump 's spokesman has denied that one of his lawyers described the former president as a 'f****** crook,' after The Phi...
Donald Trump's spokesman has denied that one of his lawyers described the former president as a 'f****** crook,' after The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday recalled a conversation between Michael van der Veen and a client.
Van der Veen, 57, was one of three lawyers drafted in a week ago to represent Trump in his trial, alongside Bruce Castor and David Schoen.
On Tuesday van der Veen's local paper spoke to a former client, Justin Hiemstra, who recalled van der Veen calling the then-president 'a f****** crook'.
Hiemstra pleaded guilty to attempting to hack into the IRS to access Trump's tax returns, in what van der Veen said was a schoolboy prank.
'I'm not sure if [those comments] were made to make me feel more comfortable, or if they were his actual opinions,' Hiemstra told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
'He definitely came off as fairly anti-Trump in the context that I knew him.'
On Wednesday Trump's spokesman Jason Miller sent a letter from van der Veen denying Hiemstra's account.
'The comments about President Donald J. Trump being attributed to me by a former client... are false,' said the letter, signed by van der Veen.
Michael van der Veen, one of Trump's three impeachment lawyers, seen on Wednesday
Michael van der Veen is one of three lawyers defending Trump, alongside Castor and Schoen
Trump, pictured in September, hired Castor, Schoen and van der Veen only a week ago
The impeachment trial of Donald Trump on charges of insurrection began on Tuesday
Van der Veen, based in Philadelphia, is best known for his personal injury, pro bono and criminal defense litigation. Castor, the former Montgomery County district attorney who famously declined to prosecute Bill Cosby, joined his firm in December.
The Washington Post reported that, during Trump's first two years as president, van der Veen donated to prominent Pennsylvania Democrats, including Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., one of the former president's most vocal critics in the chamber.
A year after the Hiemstra case, van der Veen represented Melvin Johnakin, an independent candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, when Johnakin sued Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over mail-in voting.
In the suit, filed in August, van der Veen sued 'to preserve and protect the essential right to vote and prevent large-scale disenfranchisement'.
He accused Trump and DeJoy of plotting to slow mail delivery, in particular to disenfranchise urban voters living in minority-populated, largely Democrat districts.
'These actions also arise in an environment subject to repeated claims by President Donald J. Trump that voting by mail is ripe with fraud, despite having no evidence in support of these claims, and lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign to stop mail-in voting in states such as Nevada and Pennsylvania,' van der Veen wrote.
Justin Hiemstra described van der Veen as being 'fairly anti-Trump' when he knew him
The lawsuit was settled as part of an agreement preventing the postal service from implementing many of the proposed changes that could have affected mail delivery.
Van der Veen said politics had nothing to do with his decision now to represent Trump at his impeachment trial, and insisted his previous cases had no bearing on the trial.
'My firm treats all of its clients the same,' he told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
'Whether they're in a trial on a national stage, or whether they're in the Court of Common Pleas. They all get our best representation.'
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