Time for new lawyers?

Cocooned at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump watched as his defense attorneys responded to an emotional presentation by House impeachment managers with a series of dry, technical and at times meandering arguments about due process and the constitutionality of the proceedings. As they droned on, he grew increasingly frustrated with the sharp contrast between their muted response and the prosecution’s opening salvo, according to two people familiar with his thinking.

  Politico

Ha. Maybe he'll insist on testifying. Or call in Rudy.

It didn’t help that his lead attorney, former Pennsylvania prosecutor Bruce Castor, name-checked Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who just days ago slammed his state party for their “weird worship” of Trump. Castor also referred to Trump as the “former president,” conceding that he had in fact lost the 2020 election when he was removed by “smart” voters last November.

Trump, according to those familiar with his thinking, saw his legal team’s performance as a missed opportunity and also was annoyed by the public criticism of his attorneys.

"Amissed opportunity." That's exactly what some of the public criticism was.

Some people close to the president’s defense team said they quit watching the proceedings out of sheer frustration with Castor’s presentation and were confused by his refusal to use graphics or a video––tools his TV-obsessed client had hoped to deploy.

Castor's performance was indeed abysmal, but to be fair, I doubt he had any video he could put up against the House Managers' reel.

The decidedly frosty reaction from Trump and his allies mirrored the reviews that some GOP senators offered upon leaving the chamber. And it raised a variety of questions: would the ex-president demand an adjustment of strategy? Was he regretting not appearing himself? And, most intriguing, what would his offerings be if he still had a Twitter account?

It must be killing him. But I expect he's got Junior and Eric tweeting whatever it is he wants to say.

“I'll be quite frank with you,” Castor said at one point, “we changed what we were going to do on account that we thought that the House managers' presentation was well-done. And I wanted you to know that we have responses to those things.”

According to initial plans for the trial, Trump attorney David Schoen was expected to begin arguments. But an aide to Trump said that, at the last minute, they decided to let Castor go first as part of a “very clear, deliberative strategy.”

“This is about lowering the temperature from the Democrats’ emotionally charged opening argument before dropping the hammer on the unconstitutional nature of this impeachment witch hunt,” the aide said.

It lowered the temperature to that of ice.

Despite the rockiness of the presentation and the bad reviews for it, only one Republican senator seemed swayed by the proceedings. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who initially voted that the trial was unconstitutional because it involved a former president, changed his mind on Tuesday, joining only five other Republicans to affirm the constitutionality of the impeachment trial. The Senate will move ahead with the trial on Wednesday afternoon.

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.

  The Hill

I wonder where that aide is today.

The reference to the “former vice president” is, perhaps, not a total accident. In the past few days, Trump has made clear to advisers that he absolutely doesn’t want his lawyers saying that Biden beat him fair and square, even if they don’t make the legitimacy of the election their main line of reasoning at the trial, according to a person familiar with the matter. The former president strongly feels, this source said, that doing so would amount to Trump admitting defeat.

  Daily Beast

So how much longer will Castor be on the team? We may see Rudy yet.

UPDATE: