Ahead of the rapidly approaching impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, President Trump has reportedly added a few more key players to his impeachment team, among them two former independent counsels responsible for reports on the sex scandal that ultimately got Bill Clinton impeached, Kenneth Starr and Robert Ray, as well as prominent Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz.
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman first reported on the additions of Starr, Ray, and Dershowitz Friday morning:
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 three will join White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow to represent Trump in the trial.
In a statement reported by Haberman, Trump’s impeachment team detailed the role Dershowitz — a self-described liberal who has frequently defended Trump publicly since he took office — will play.
“Professor Dershowitz will present oral arguments at the Senate trial to address the constitutional arguments against impeachment and removal,” the statement reads. “While Professor Dershowitz is nonpartisan when it comes to the constitution — he opposed the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and voted for Hillary Clinton — he believes the issues at stake go to the heart of our enduring Constitution. He is participating in this impeachment trial to defend the integrity of the Constitution and to prevent the creation of a dangerous constitutional precedent.”
Starr’s famous report on Clinton’s sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky presented “substantial and credible information that President Clinton criminally obstructed the judicial process, first in a sexual harassment lawsuit in which he was the defendant and then in a grand jury investigation.” The Starr Report’s findings ultimately led to the Republican-majority House passing two articles of impeachment against Clinton, for perjury to a grand jury and obstruction of justice, on both of which the president was acquitted in the Republican-led Senate.
Among the damaging information detailed in the Starr Report are “the President’s efforts to get Ms. Lewinsky a job, Ms. Lewinsky’s subpoena in Jones v. Clinton, the role of Vernon Jordan, the President’s discussions with Ms. Lewinsky about her affidavit and deposition, the President’s deposition testimony in Jones, the President’s attempts to coach a potential witness in the harassment case, the President’s false and misleading statements to aides and to the American public after the Lewinsky story became public, and, finally, the President’s testimony before a federal grand jury.”
Ray submitted the final report on the Lewinsky scandal after he took over as head of the Office of the Independent Counsel in 1999, a position he held until 2002.
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This article has been updated to include more context.