Trump lawyer sued him for ‘repeated claims’ mail voting ripe with fraud

One of the attorneys on former President Trump’s impeachment defense team sued him late last year for making “repeated claims” that mail voting was plagued with fraud despite having “no evidence in support of these claims.”

The Washington Post reports that Michael T. van der Veen, a Philadelphia lawyer with a background in personal injury law, is now a part of Trump’s defense team after having sued him just a few months ago. 

It reported that van der Veen’s signature has been on briefs filed by Trump’s team, which includes Bruce Castor, a lead attorney for Trump’s defense who was hired in December by van der Veen’s firm.

The firm is van der Veen, O’Neill, Hartshorn and Levin.

Castor was recommended to Trump by an aide after it was reported that the attorneys who represented Trump in his first trial would not represent him this time.

As the Post reports, van der Veen was part of a lawsuit filed by independent congressional candidate Melvin Johnakin against Trump, the U.S. Postal Service and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. The suit alleged that operational changes made in the Postal Service made it harder for voters to cast their ballots amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

“To exercise the fundamental right to vote, many voters have and will utilize all available means to vote by mail rather than in person at a polling place,” van der Veen wrote on his website. “Advanced planning and proactive measures will be necessary to ensure that voters have sufficient access to vote by mail to preserve and protect the essential right to vote and prevent large-scale disenfranchisement.”

The suit was settled in November, the Post reports, as part of an effort to stop the Postal Service from making changes that could delay mail, and thus delay votes from being counted.

Calls to van der Veen’s law firm were directed to a phone message stating the number was no longer in service.

The Hill has reached out to Trump’s office for comment.