Kenneth Starr, Alan Dershowitz to join Trump’s legal team

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has expanded his legal team to include three well-known lawyers, Harvard emeritus law professor Alan Dershowitz and former independent counsels Kenneth Starr and Robert Ray, according to person familiar with the development.

Word of the expansion came as House impeachment managers and Trump's lawyers scrambled to produce legal briefs for his historic impeachment trial.

The Senate trial opened Thursday amid a swirl of new allegations about Trump's dealings with Ukraine, including an assertion from Lev Parnas - a former associate of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani - that Trump knew of Parnas' role in the effort to dig up dirt in Ukraine that could benefit the president politically.

The impeachment charges center on the allegation that Trump withheld military aid and a White House meeting to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, including former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

On Dec. 18, the House passed two articles of impeachment - abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The trial began Thursday after the seven House managers, led by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., arrived in the Senate to formally present the charges.

Dershowitz confirmed his involvement on Trump's legal team to The Washington Post, saying he would present arguments at the Senate trial that obstruction of Congress and abuse of power do not reach the constitutional standard to impeach a president for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Starr and Ray, who investigated President Bill Clinton, are also joining the team, according someone familiar with the expansion who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Trump's team is being led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and will also include Jay Sekulow, a personal lawyer to the president, and Pam Bondi, a former Florida state attorney general.

Trump wanted Dershowitz and Bondi as part of the team because he believes they are talented on TV and convincing, a White House official familiar with the selections say. Starr, he believes, gives him credence because of his role in the Clinton impeachment.

"Obstruction of Congress and abuse of power are not included among them," Dershowitz said of high crimes and misdemeanors.

He said he was participating "to defend the integrity of the Constitution and to prevent the creation of a dangerous constitutional precedent."

Dershowitz said the president asked him to make the case and that he had coordinated with Trump's legal team.

"The president asked me to present my independent constitutional arguments in my books and my articles to the Senate. My argument is going to be directed at the constitutional criteria and why they haven't been met in this place."

While the Senate is in recess until Tuesday, the House impeachment managers and Trump's lawyers are expected to be working around the clock over the long holiday weekend to prepare legal briefs central to the trial.

A trial brief from House managers is due Saturday at 5 p.m. Trump's team is due to present a brief by noon on Monday. If House managers want to file a rebuttal brief, that is due by noon on Tuesday.

The impeachment trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday afternoon with debate over a resolution that will dictate the rules of the proceedings. Among the issues to be decided: how long each side will be given to present its case and how long senators will be given to present questions.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to try to force a vote on calling witnesses, but Republicans appear united in delaying decisions on that front until after the early stages of the trial unfold.

Opening statements from both sides are expected later in the week.