Ex-President Donald Trump announced on Sunday night that he had found two new attorneys, one of whom represented Trump ally Roger Stone, to defend him in his upcoming Senate impeachment trial after his first defense team bailed little more than a week before the trial was set to begin.
In a statement describing himself as “the 45th President” no fewer than four times, Trump announced that David Schoen and Bruce Castor, Jr. will serve as his defense lawyers.
They “agree that this impeachment is unconstitutional,” according to the former president.
“It is an honor to represent the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, and the United States Constitution,” Schoen said, while Castor said it was a “privilege to represent the 45h President.”
Schoen represented Stone in his criminal case when the Trump associate was charged for witness tampering and lying to Congress. Stone was pardoned by Trump last December.
Schoen was also poised to represent accused child sex trafficker billionaire Jeffrey Epstein before the disgraced billionaire allegedly died by suicide.
When he served as district attorney of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania during 2002 to 2008, Castor declined to pursue criminal charges against actor Bill Cosby, who was accused of sexual assault in 2005 by Andrea Constand. Cosby was found guilty in 2018 in a separate case on Constand’s allegations and had been accused of sexual assault by 60 women at that point.
Trump’s new recruits fill some of the empty slots left behind by the five attorneys who had been tapped to defend the ex-president in the trial next Monday. Their 11th hour departure was prompted by Trump’s disagreement with their legal strategy, according to CNN. Trump reportedly wanted them to argue against impeachment on the basis of his falsehoods about voter fraud, which had been repeatedly debunked during his crusade to steal the election from President Joe Biden.
Correction: This post has been revised to note that Epstein had “allegedly” died by suicide.
