Now that word’s got around Alan Dershowitz has joined Trump’s impeachment-trial defense team, he’s apparently trying to make a crucial distinction about his role:
Dersh’s own Twitter account goes into more detail, referring to himself in the third person:
Nothing in this protestation denies the fact that this totally impartial, disinterested testimony (a) will be presented during the president’s counterargument to impeachment and (b) will be aimed at procuring Trump’s acquittal. So he’s a “member of Trump’s legal team” whether he likes it or not. Nobody believes his impartiality act these days, anyway; he should give it a rest and appear in the Senate chamber wearing a bright-red MAGA cap.
But even as he backs away from the impression that he’s there to defend Donald Trump, the word is sifting out that some people there aren’t jazzed about it, either, per Axios’ well-sourced Jonathan Swan:
Several White House officials told me they were hoping Trump wouldn’t pick Alan Dershowitz to play a role in the Senate trial.
They said it was an unforced error given the team was already strong and he has close, publicly documented ties to Jeffrey Epstein which could become a distraction.
But Trump thinks Dershowitz is magnificent on TV, a White House official told me.
When Dershowitz gets up to speak, some Democratic senator ought to move to go into a closed session and cut off the cameras to spare everybody a lot of embarrassment.
