“I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th President. The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document that has stood for centuries was written, and it will triumph over bias again, and always, “Castor said in a statement.
Castor, a Republican who was the elected district attorney for Pennsylvania’s third populous county, decided to charge Cosby in a sexual encounter in 2004. He was re-elected in 2015 and his verdict in the Cosby case was a major issue used by the Democrat who defeated him.
Castor said he personally believed Cosby should be arrested, but that the evidence was not strong enough to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
In 2004, Castor unsuccessfully presented to the Attorney General. In 2016, he became the top lieutenant of the State Attorney-General – Kathleen Kane, a Democrat – because she faces charges of leaking protected investigative information to smear a competitor and to a large jury about it to lie. She was convicted and Castor was left as acting attorney general for a few days.
Attorney David Schoen will also head the defense team.
Schoen met a financier with Jeffrey Epstein on the charge of sexual trafficking in his defense team a few days before Epstein killed himself in a New York jail.
In an interview with the Atlanta Jewish Times last year, Schoen said that before the trial of Stone, he was also approached by Trump associate Trump because he was part of the team and that he was later detained to handle his appeal. Trump overturned Stone’s sentence and then pardoned him. Schoen maintained in the interview that the case against Stone was ‘very unfair and politicized’.
The announcement Sunday was intended to foster a sense of stability around the Trump defense team as its indictment approaches. The former president has struggled to hire and retain lawyers willing to represent him against the charges that he incited the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump’s entire legal team stops week before indictment: Sources
This is a contrast to his first indictment, when Alan Dershowitz, one of the country’s most famous lawyers, as well as Pat Cipollone, a White House lawyer, and Jay Sekulow, who argued, were a contrast to his first trial accusation. cases before the Supreme Court.
Trump’s team initially announced that Butch Bowers, a lawyer in South Carolina, would lead his legal team following an introduction by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. But the team unraveled over the weekend due to differences over legal strategy.
One person familiar with their thinking said Bowers and another South Carolina attorney, Deborah Barbier, left the team because Trump wanted them to use a defense based on allegations of election fraud, and the lawyers was not prepared to do so. The person is not authorized to speak in public about the situation and asked for anonymity
Republicans and aides to Trump, the first president to be indicted twice in U.S. history, have made it clear they intend to make a simple argument at trial: Trump’s trial, scheduled for the week of February 8 , is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.
SEE ALSO: Dad. Congresswoman talks about accusation: ‘This president must be held accountable’
“The Democrats’ attempts to accuse a president who has already left office are completely unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” Trump’s adviser Jason Miller said.
However, many jurists say there is no impediment to an indictment even though Trump has left the White House. One argument is that state constitutions that preceded the U.S. Constitution are allowed to be prosecuted after officials leave office. The drafters of the Constitution also did not specifically prohibit the practice.
Neither Schoen nor Castor returned telephone messages on Sunday night.
SEE ALSO: Trump loses chief lawyer a week before trial, sources say
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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