President Donald Trump 's former impeachment lawyer Alan Dershowitz absolutely panned Trump's current impeachment lawyer Bruce C...
President Donald Trump's former impeachment lawyer Alan Dershowitz absolutely panned Trump's current impeachment lawyer Bruce Castor's opening swing at an argument during Tuesday's Senate trial.
'There is no argument. I have no idea what he's doing. I have no idea why he's saying what he's saying,' Dershowitz said Tuesday on Newsmax as Castor's 47-minute rambling opening statement was ongoing. 'I just don't understand it, maybe he'll bring it home, but right now it does not appear to me to be effective advocacy.'
Castor's trial debut featured the lawyer flattering senators - including Democratic Sens. Bob Casey, from Castor's home state of Pennsylania, and Ben Sasse, a top Republican Trump critic - complimenting the House managers' argument, condemning the violence at the Capitol, admitting President Joe Biden won the election and arguing political speech shouldn't be punished.
President Trump's former impeachment attorney Alan Dershowitz slammed the opening statement made by Trump's current impeachment attorney Bruce Castor telling Newsmax, 'I have no idea what he's doing. I have no idea why he's saying what he's saying'
Trump's attorney Bruce Castor made a meandering opening statement at Tuesday's Senate trial, where he complimented the senators, including the two Pennsylvanians that he knew, and didn't much touch on the Constitutionality of the trial issue
Trump's second impeachment trial started in the Senate Tuesday with a bizarre opening speech by attorney Castor. Previously former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Castor should be replaced by Rep. Matt Gaetz, a top House ally of the ex-president
Other than those toplines, Castor's meandering opener was difficult to follow.
Dershowitz was shaking his head when asked about the appearance.
Dershowitz rightly guessed that Trump's second lawyer David Schoen would speak more about what was supposed to be the ex-president's team main argument: that it's unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for an ex-president.
The Senate later voted 56-44 that the trial could go ahead.
Dershowitz was aghast that Castor didn't go there first.
'But this ... just ... after all kinds of very strong presentations on the part of the House managers with the videotapes and the emotional speech by Congressman Raskin, my former student, you get up there and you respond,' Dershowitz said.
'We know that hard cases make bad law,' he continued. 'I probably would have started with that. This is a hard case, this is an emotional case. He did say, and I think very appropriately, that everybody wants to take revenge when they see a horrible event that took place at the Capitol, but then he went off.'
Dershowitz also couldn't believe that Castor spent his opening minutes playing footsy with the senators.
'And you know, senators of the United States, they are not ordinary people. There are extraordinary people in the technical sense, extraordinary people,' Castor said.
'I have been around the United States senators before. Two of them in this room from Pennsylvania and I would like to think are friendly towards me or at least friends of mine when we are not politically adverse,' he noted.
The message was directed at Democrat Casey and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
Toomey later voted alongside Democrats that the Senate trial was constitutional.
So did Sasse, who Castor also name-dropped.
'He may know the senators better than I do, maybe they want to be buttered up, maybe they want to be told what great people they are and how he knows two senators,' Dershowitz continued. 'But boy it's not the kind of argument I would have made, I'll tell you that.'
Trump had been warned.
On Friday, former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Newsmax that Castor should be axed.
'That lawyer that you just put on, you gotta get rid of those guys. These people don't understand. This is a political trial,' Navarro said after a clip of Castor aired.
Instead, Navarro urged Trump to fire the legal team and replace those lawyers with Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who said he would resign from Congress to defend the ex-president.
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