Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen sends his kids to secret location, hires armed guards after death threats
Trump's star defense attorney Michael van der Veen expanded on reports that his home was attacked during an appearance on Newsmax TV on February 15, following his victory on Saturday, February 13 in defending the former president in his second impeachment trial.
Speaking to Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt, van der Veen said he was forced to send his children away for their protection. "We had a lot more than that happen to our home. We’re doing fine," the lawyer said. "I moved my children to a secretive location. We’ve hired armed guards to protect our places of living and working. And we’re doing fine. My family understands and my law firm understands that we fight on the side of right."
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Michael Van der Veen has received significant backlash after his starring role in Trump’s impeachment defense over the past few days. On Friday, February 12, his wife Marion Murphy van der Veen reported that their home had been attacked.
The Trump lawyer shed light on the shocking incident that involved his family. “My home was attacked. I'd rather not go into it because it would encourage other people to do it more, but you know, I've had nearly 100 death threats,” he said, according to a report. He further stressed that he was neither a “controversial guy” nor a political person.
The word 'TRAITOR' was spray-painted in red around 8 pm on February 14 onto the driveway of the attorney’s home, which is located in West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, around 30 miles south of Philadelphia. Michael Van der Veen revealed that private security had been hired to protect the residence, while police had increased their presence in the neighborhood. He had grabbed headlines earlier that day as he accused media companies of trying to push a narrative instead of sticking to the facts.
“What this country wants and this country needs is this country to come together,” he said during an appearance on CBS, adding that news outlets were “trying to divide this country". “The media wants to tell their narrative rather than just telling it like it is,” he said, before urging news outlets “to start telling the right story in this country."
“You are bloodthirsty for ratings. You’re asking questions that are already set up with a fact-pattern,” van der Veen further alleged.
The outburst came in response to an arguably "slanted" question by CBS News reporter, Lana Zak, after the Senate acquitted Trump. van der Veen was asked about what he described as doctored evidence as it was presented by Democratic House managers during the trial, including selectively edited videos of the Capitol siege and the addition of a Twitter verified checkmark on a tweet.
In response, van der Veen suggested that Zak had framed her question in a manner that sought to downplay the severity of doctoring evidence. “It’s not ok to doctor a little bit of evidence,” he asserted. “Prosecutors, in this case, doctored evidence. They did not investigate this case, and when they had to come to the court of the Senate to put their case on because they had not done any investigation, they doctored evidence," van der Veen explained. "It was absolutely shocking. I think when we discovered it and were able to expose it and put it out, I think it turned a lot of senators,” he added.