Trump is unhappy with his dismissal attorney’s performance, sources say

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Castor, who represents Trump alongside attorney David Schoen, made a meandering argument during the first day of the indictment trial in the Senate, including praise for House prosecution managers for a presentation that said it was “well done.”

Trump was almost screaming as Castor struggled to put himself at the center of his defense team’s argument, which is supposed to be constitutional to hold a trial for a president who no longer holds office. Given that the legal team met a little over a week ago, it came out as expected, one of the sources told CNN.

Still, Trump’s allies were baffled when lawyers changed the time slots at the last minute.

Castor’s discursive presentation included lengthy praise in the Senate, including Pennsylvania home state senators, Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Bob Casey, while arguing that the Senate should not hold the trial. He warned that a second dismissal trial in 13 months would “open the floodgates” to future dismissals, even making the unfounded rhetorical suggestion that Attorney General Eric Holder, a former Obama administration, could be charged.

The Senate finally voted between 56 and 44 that the impeachment trial is constitutional.

An adviser to Trump’s team offered a warm assessment of the messy opening day and asked insistently, “What the hell is going on?”

The adviser said the former president could be in grave danger if he is charged in a criminal court, given his inability to attract a high-powered legal team to the impeachment trial.

“Trump is wanted if someone charges him. No one wants to work with him,” the adviser said.

Schoen was supposed to present first, not Castor, two people familiar with the plan told CNN. But Castor told the Senate that Trump’s legal team “changed what we would do because we thought the House managers’ presentation was well done.”

As the ball turned up for Schoen, the keeper made a spectacular diving save. Schoen accused Democrats of using impeachment as a political “blood sport” to try to prevent Trump from running for office again, accusing them of trying to disenfranchise pro-Trump voters.

Although the former president was upset by the first actions of his defense team, his staff was confident that he was on his way to acquittal and that he would not change the outcome of the trial. Two separate sources close to Trump say he was down until the end of the trial, but talking to aides about how to re-emerge and help Republicans in the midterm elections.

An independent senior adviser to Trump insisted that Castor was trying to lower the emotional temperature in the Senate before Schoen began his presentation.

“It’s about lowering the temperature after the Democrats’ emotionally charged opening, before dropping the hammer on the unconstitutional nature of this dismissal witch hunt, ”the councilor said.

But even some GOP senators indicated they were not impressed with the presentation.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who voted the trial unconstitutional, told the press bluntly, “I thought the president’s attorney, the first attorney, went very, very far and didn’t address really to constitutional argument “.

“Eventually, the second lawyer got involved and, I thought, he did an effective job.” He quickly added, “But I’ve seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments and that was it: it wasn’t one of the best I’ve seen.”

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was the only senator to vote differently than in a procedural vote last month on the constitutionality of the trial, told reporters that “House managers were focused, they were organized “and” made a compelling argument, “while” President Trump’s team was disorganized. “

“They did everything they could, but to talk about the issue we had within reach, and when they talked about it they planned, almost as if they were ashamed of their arguments,” Cassidy said.

Similarly, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said, “Today was supposed to be an opportunity to learn about the constitutionality of whether or not you can move forward with the removal of a former president.”

“I thought the House presented a pretty good, pretty good legal analysis. To be fair, I was really stunned at the first lawyer that former President Trump presented. I couldn’t figure out where he was going, spent 45 minutes going to somewhere, but I don’t think it would help us better understand where it came from about the constitutionality of this fact, ”Murkowski said.

A source who advised the Trump campaign said clearly, “Be criticized by both parties. Yikes.”

Castor and Schoen, each with a history of being involved in controversial legal issues, were approved to lead Trump’s legal team a day after CNN first reported that five members of its defense had abruptly left. One point of friction with his previous team was that Trump wanted lawyers to focus on his election fraud claims rather than the constitutionality of convicting a former president.
A source close to Trump’s first removal team said the former president’s current lawyer should not be compared to the lawyers who represented him at his first trial.

“It’s hard to compare it to our team,” the source said of Trump’s first dismissal team, noting that he had veteran dismissal judge Bill Clinton Ken Starr, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and l former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Different level of experience.”

Despite the criticism, Castor simply told reporters after the day’s session, “I thought we had a good day, thank you.”

This story has been updated with additional reports.

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