Who are David Schoen and Bruce Castor? Epstein's pal and Montgomery ex-DA to lead Trump's impeachment defense
CLARIFICATION AND APOLOGY: This article has been updated with a new cover photo as it carried the wrong image of David Schoen. We sincerely apologize and deeply regret the inconvenience caused.
After parting ways with five members of his impeachment legal team, former President Donald Trump on Sunday, January 31, stated that David Schoen and Bruce Castor Jr will now be leading his impeachment trial defense team, just eight days before the trial is set to begin.
Trump, who often reshuffled attorneys and advisers during his presidency, was in need of new counsel because his impeachment lawyers departed on Saturday, January 30, including Butch Bowers, who was supposed to be his head advocate for the trial starting February 9, 2021. Reports suggested that Trump wanted his attorneys to focus their defense on his baseless claims that the election was stolen from him, rather than on a more narrow discussion about the events of January 6.
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Who is David Schoen?
David Schoen is an Atlanta-based lawyer who has represented Roger Stone, a Trump ally charged with lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction in connection to Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. If reports are to be believed, he was friends with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and he had discussed the same with outlets including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Schoen, who practices criminal defense and civil rights litigation, was set to join Epstein’s legal team days before his death, and the attorney has floated the conspiracy theory that the financier was murdered. Schoen, who has offices in Alabama and New York, frequently appears on Fox News as a legal expert, and once penned an op-ed on the conservative network’s website saying Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election should be “rejected and not believed.”
He is a member of the Bar in Alabama, New York, Maryland, and the District of Columbia and has been admitted to practice law in all state and federal courts in those jurisdictions, as well as federal trial courts in Michigan, Illinois, and Texas, many federal courts of appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. David has appeared pro hac vice in many other jurisdictions.
In 1995, David was honored by the American Bar Association with its national pro bono public award. In bestowing this prestigious award on David, the American Bar Association reported that the various federal judges its Committee had interviewed during the award evaluation period had credited David with accomplishing more through his litigation than any lawyer of this era to positively change the face of public institutions in the South.
In 2015, David was honored by Boston College Law School with its Honorable David S. Nelson Public Interest Award, named for a great federal judge and humanitarian.
Who is Bruce L Castor Jr?
Castor is most well known for declining to prosecute Bill Cosby in 2005 over sexual assault charges. This happened at the time when he was a county DA in Pennsylvania. Castor stated there was a lack of physical evidence against Cosby was later found guilty. Castor ran for the race of the Pennsylvania attorney general in 2004 and lost before he became state solicitor general in 2016, and later acting attorney general for about one week.
While he was working in private practice, Castor represented former professional basketball player Marko Jaric of the Memphis Grizzlies, who was accused and later acquitted of sexual assault charges.
“I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th President,” Castor wrote. “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.”