Dershowitz slams Trump attorney: ‘Have no idea what he’s doing’

Alan Dershowitz, an attorney who defended former President Trump in his first impeachment trial, was sharply critical on Tuesday of current defense attorney Bruce Castor and his opening argument in Trump’s second Senate trial.

“There is no argument. I have no idea what he’s doing. I have no idea why he’s saying what he’s saying,” Dershowitz, an opinion contributor for The Hill, said on Newsmax.

Tuesday marked the impeachment trial’s first day. Trump stands accused of inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and Castor’s at times meandering opening statement raised eyebrows on social media.

“Come on. The American people are entitled to an argument, a constitutional argument. I suspect it will be forthcoming from [fellow Trump attorney] David Schoen, but this just — after all kinds of very strong presentations on the part of the House managers with the videotapes and the emotional speech by Congressman Raskin, my former student … you know you get up there and you respond,” the former Harvard Law professor added, referring to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead House impeachment manager.

Castor opened his defense on Tuesday by arguing that the impeachment trial was an entirely political move on the part of Democratic lawmakers. He also repeatedly praised the institution of the Senate and the Democratic House managers for their own opening, a move that Dershowitz said he would not have made.

“He may know the senators better than I do. Maybe they want to be buttered up,” Dershowitz said. “It does not appear to me to be effective advocacy.”

‘There is no argument – I have no idea what he is doing,’ @AlanDersh on Trump’s defense lawyer Bruce Castor ‘talking nice’ to U.S. Senators – via Newsmax TV’s ‘American Agenda.’ https://t.co/VlT7z8drtO pic.twitter.com/7P7uVk5X19

— Newsmax (@newsmax) February 9, 2021

“We know that hard cases make bad law. I probably would have started with that,” Dershowitz said. “This is a hard case. This is an emotional case. He did say, and I think very appropriately, that everybody wants to take revenge when they see a horrible event that took place at the Capitol, but then he went off. I just don’t understand it.”

Dershowitz had previously said that he believed the Senate should dismiss the articles of impeachment against Trump, as he is now a private citizen.

“For the victorious Democrats to seek revenge against Donald Trump would set a terrible precedent, distract from President Biden’s agenda, and make it hard to heal the country. Better to move on,” he wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.