Are you ready to party like it’s 1999?
President Trump plans on adding former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and the defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz to his legal team for his trial by the Senate, a person briefed on the plan said Friday.
Mr. Starr, whose investigation into President Bill Clinton’s sexual relationships led to his impeachment, will be joined by Robert Ray, who succeeded Mr. Starr as independent counsel and wrote the final report on Mr. Clinton, the person said.
Rounding out the team will be Mr. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus who became famous as a defense counsel for high-profile defendants like O.J. Simpson.
The White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, will lead the legal team.
Let’s review the bidding. Starr and Ray were integral components in what Charlie Pierce calls “the hunt for the president’s penis.” Dershowitz was against impeachment before favoring it. Lev Parnas placed Jay Sekulow in the same leaky, unethical boat as Rudy Giuliani: he has knowledge of the Ukraine scam as it happened. He should recuse himself but won’t. Trump likes sleazy lawyers.
Two of these lawyers have links to sex scandals. Starr to the Baylor football sex scandal and Dershowitz to master perv Jeffrey Epstein That’s probably why the Impeached Insult Comedian picked them. Pervs of a feather flock together.
Lapsed liberal and obsessive contrarian Alan Dershowitz has also been portrayed onscreen. A show biz touch that surely appealed to President* Pennywise. Ron Silver played him in Reversal of Fortune. On television, he was played by Richard Cox in American Tragedy, and Evan Handler in The People vs. OJ Simpson. Handler, who usually sports a shaved head, rocked a toupee as Dershowitz:
I somehow doubt that they’ll want to be known as the Dream Team 2: the Scream Team is more like it. I wonder if Rudy plans to sit in the gallery and heckle. Now that would be must-see teevee.
The last word goes to Prince:
I’m pretty sure the Senate trial is going to out-kangaroo Bob Keeshan (look it up), but I wonder what might happen if any evidence or testimony edges up against Jay Sekulow, what he knew, when he knew it, and any actions he might have taken. Will anyone be allowed to pose questions to Sekulow, or ask him to give an account of his actions? Will he be sworn in, like any other witness?
Roberts better have his gavel ready to cut off any inconvenient developments.
Per Senate rules, Roberts won’t have much leeway to do much of anything. But Parnas sure seems to be tying Sekulow to this. Of course, his own credibility is not all that great.
Also, wasn’t Starr also somehow involved with future Trump Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta’s sweetheart plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein in 2008?