By Aaron Miller-
Former president Donald Trump has hired an attorney who refused to prosecute Bill Cosby for the sexual offences the U.S star has been jailed for.
The former U.S president, announced a new impeachment legal defence team Sunday, a day after he had parted ways with an his former attorneys, with just over a week to go before his Senate trial.
Among them was Bruce Castor, a former district attorney in Pennsylvania who has faced criticism for his decision not to charge actor Bill Cosby in a sex crimes case. and David Schoen, a frequent television legal commentator.
Castor will work alongside a new colead counsel, Alabama criminal defence lawyer David Schoen — in a statement issued late Sunday night. He lauded the new team for the significant “national profiles and significant trial experience” they will bring to his defence.
Castor established his reputation in the 2000s as Montgomery County’s top prosecutor, but which took a hit after a brief tenure as Pennsylvania’s acting attorney general, and a failed 2015 bid to reclaim his old district attorney post, and a chastening moment as a star defence witness in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial
The two attorneys issued statements through Trump’s office saying that they were honoured to take the job.
“The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always,” said Castor, who served as district attorney for Montgomery County, outside of Philadelphia, from 2000 to 2008.
The former president recently saw attorneys representing him against charges that he incited the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol step down from their appointment, after Trump insisted they argued based their defence on the allegation that the elections were rigged.
Trump’s team had initially announced that Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer, would lead his legal team after an introduction from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Trump’s lawyers wanted to base their defence on the argument that the impeachment is unconstitutional because the is no longer in office.
“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country,” Trump adviser Jason Miller has said.
Castor, a Republican who was the elected district attorney of Pennsylvania’s third-most populated county, decided against charging Cosby in a 2004 sexual encounter. He ran for the job again in 2015, and his judgment in the Cosby case was a key issue used against him by the Democrat who defeated him.
Castor has said that he personally thought Cosby should have been arrested, but that the evidence wasn’t strong enough to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
In 2004, Castor ran for state attorney general unsuccessfully. In 2016, he became the top lieutenant to the state’s embattled attorney general — Kathleen Kane, a Democrat — as she faced charges of leaking protected investigative information to smear a rival and lying to a grand jury about it. She was convicted, leaving Castor as the state’s acting attorney general for a few days.