Tag: Trump legal team

Dershowitz: Trump Crimes Are Excusable If His Re-election Is ‘In Public Interest’

Donald Trump’s defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz raised eyebrows on Wednesday when he argued that Trump has free reign to cheat in an election if he believes his victory would be in the best interest of the American people.

“If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” Dershowitz said on the Senate floor, during the question-and-answer period of the impeachment trial against Trump.

Dershowitz’s argument got immediate pushback by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a House impeachment manager, who has been arguing that Trump has to be removed from office because his cheating cuts at the very heart of the Constitutional right to free and fair elections. Continue reading.

Trump defense team signals focus on Schiff

The Hill logoAt several points during their opening argument, President Trump’s defense team trained their fire on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), removing any doubt about their intent to make the House manager’s credibility an issue at the impeachment trial.

Addressing the Senate on Saturday, Trump’s lawyers accused Schiff of repeatedly stretching the truth and creating false impressions amid his pursuit to take down the president.

“Chairman Schiff has made so much of the House’s case about the credibility of interpretations that the House managers want to place on — not hard evidence — but on inferences,” said Patrick Philbin, deputy counsel to Trump. Continue reading.

Democrats worry Trump team will cherry-pick withheld documents during defense

The Hill logoDemocrats are sounding the alarm that President Trump’s legal team may seek to selectively incorporate undisclosed documents as part of its defense, just months after the White House refused to release such records to House impeachment investigators.

Senate Republicans this week shot down Democratic efforts to prevent Trump’s lawyers from cherry-picking previously unreleased documents to make their case. Now, as the president’s defense team is set to take center stage in the Senate trial on Saturday, Democrats say they fully expect Trump’s attorneys to do just that.

“You know that’s exactly what they’re going to do,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). “This whole trial is calculated to not provide any relevant evidence that the White House should have provided, not provide any witnesses that the White House prevented from being deposed. And the whole thing is to try and just push this through.” Continue reading.

An embarrassing moment for Trump’s legal team

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s impeachment managers made little secret Tuesday that they’d rather put House Democrats on trial than Trump. They repeatedly alleged mistreatment of Trump in his impeachment rather than dwelling upon the evidence against him.

But in one instance, one of them badly overreached.

Appearing shortly after 6 p.m. on the Senate floor, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Jay Sekulow offered an indignant rebuke of the Democrats’ impeachment managers. What he was so incensed about: that they had allegedly referred to “lawyer lawsuits” in prosecuting the case against Trump. Continue reading.

Sekulow’s ‘Due Process’ Argument Falls Flat

The evidence against Trump is overwhelming and irrefutable. Because his attorneys can’t argue with the facts, today they launched his defense with the false claim that Trump’s been denied due process.

Trump and his lawyers were offered a chance to participate in the House impeachment proceedings. They refused.

New York Times: “The House did offer Mr. Trump and his lawyers a chance to participate in the latter stages of the impeachment proceedings, but he declined to take them up.”

Trump stonewalled the House impeachment inquiry.

New York Times: “Fueling the obstruction of Congress charge, a dozen more witnesses, some with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s actions, were blocked from speaking to investigators, and the Trump administration refused to produce a single document under subpoena.” Continue reading “Sekulow’s ‘Due Process’ Argument Falls Flat”

Trump legal team readies attack on Flynn’s credibility

The following article by Carol D Leonnig was posted on the Washington Post website December 27, 2017:

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn leaves a Washington courthouse following his plea hearing Dec. 1. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump’s legal team plans to cast former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn as a liar seeking to protect himself if he accuses the president or his senior aides of any wrongdoing, according to three people familiar with the strategy.

The approach would mark a sharp break from Trump’s previously sympathetic posture toward Flynn, whom he called a “wonderful man” when Flynn was ousted from the White House in February. Earlier this month, the president did not rule out a possible pardon for Flynn, who is cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Attorneys for Trump and his top advisers have privately expressed confidence that Flynn does not have any evidence that could implicate the president or his White House team. But since Flynn’s cooperation agreement with prosecutors was made public earlier this month, the administration has been strategizing how to neutralize him in case the former national security adviser does make any claims. Continue reading “Trump legal team readies attack on Flynn’s credibility”