Old one President Trump
Donald TrumpBiden: ‘I’m tired of talking about Trump’ Hacker claims to have stolen files from Trump-related law firm: WSJ Texas Governor faces criticism about how to deal with winter radioactive precipitation MORE allegedly downgraded one of his defense lawyers in the middle of his second impeachment trial due to the attorney’s performance on the Senate floor last week.
The New York Times reports that one of Trump’s aides, Justin Clark, told Bruce Castor last Wednesday that the former president did not want the lawyer to appear on television again during the trial.
Castor would then have stood up while shouting and argued that Trump was wrong to demote him. According to the Times, the discussion got so heated that Castor ended up leaving the conference room, although he later apologized to Clark.
The Times noted that half a dozen members of Trump’s legal team relayed their reports of the incident during a meeting in a conference room at the former president’s hotel in Washington, DC
The Hill contacted Trump’s office for comment.
Castor was added to the Trump defense team about a week before the trial began, after being recommended by his cousin Stephen Castor, one of Trump’s advisers. The speedy hiring of the Pennsylvania attorney came after reports emerged that Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer who was supposed to lead Trump’s defense team, left along with four other lawyers due to disagreements with Trump over how to approach the trial.
Commentators and politicians on both sides of the aisle criticized the former president’s Castor defense hours last week.
“Anyone who listened to President Trump’s legal team saw that they were out of focus, tried to avoid the problem and talked about everything except the problem at hand,” Senator. Bill Cassidy
Bill CassidyTrump unloads at McConnell, promises main opponents of MAGA. State parties seek to punish anti-Trump Republicans. Republican Party official in Toomey: Not sent to ‘do the right thing or whatever he said’ MORE (R-La.), One of seven Republican senators who voted to condemn Trump, said after Castor’s statements.
Castor countered the criticism by telling reporters, “Only one person’s opinion matters, which is why I’m talking.”
“You have to remember that we literally had a week and a day to prepare the defense and we were all people who had never met before,” David Schoen, another member of Trump’s legal team, told the Times in a statement.
Schoen told the newspaper that he regretted not having postponed Castor’s agenda, as well as failing to inform Trump of Castor’s prominent role in the trial.
“I admired your courage in jumping forward,” Schoen told the Times. “Unfortunately, he was criticized by the media and several people thought that perhaps the agenda should be reconsidered.”