
Alan Dershowitz, who served on former President Trump’s impeachment defense team during last year’s trial, blasted attorney Bruce Castor for his opening remarks during today’s impeachment proceedings, telling Newsmax, “I have no idea what he’s doing.”
Castor is leading Trump's defense during this second impeachment trial. He's currently giving opening statements in the case.
“Maybe he'll bring it home, but right now, it does not appear to me to be effective advocacy,” Dershowitz told the conservative cable news outlet in an interview Tuesday. “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 would have focused on a First Amendment defense, telling Newsmax, “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.”
“I would have gotten right to that, but again, different strokes for different folks, different styles for different lawyers,” Dershowitz said. “And he's a folksy lawyer, and folksy lawyers sometimes do very, very well with juries.”