Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who defended former President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial, blasted the defense team’s performance on Tuesday.
Dershowitz singled out lead lawyer Bruce Castor’s opening remarks.
“There is no argument,” Dershowitz told Newsmax. “I have no idea what he’s doing. I have no idea why he’s saying what he’s saying.”
“Maybe he’ll bring it home, but right now, it does not appear to me to be effective advocacy,” Dershowitz continued. “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.
“But it’s not the kind of argument I would have made, I have to tell you that,” Dershowitz said. He said a simple First Amendment defense would have been a more effective approach.
“You cannot abridge the freedom of speech, and whatever you might think of the President’s speech — and I don’t think very much of it — it can’t be the basis for an impeachment if it’s constitutionally protected,” he said. “I would have gotten right to that, but again, different strokes for different folks. Different styles for different lawyers.”
“He’s a folksy lawyer, and folksy lawyers sometimes do very, very well with juries.”
Dershowitz isn’t alone.
According to Fox News, Trump himself was “beyond angry” — even “furious” — with his legal team’s performance.
Insiders have said that Trump planned to use the expected acquittal vote to launch his 2024 presidential campaign, and wants a stronger performance from his lawyers to help make his case to American voters.
“He’s compared it to that time in between seasons of ‘The Apprentice,’ building anticipation and wonderment for what’s to come,” an insider told Politico.
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