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Trump impeachment defense adds Alan Dershowitz, Kenneth Starr

Attorney Alan Dershowitz (R) stands next to President Donald Trump at a reception in the White House on December 11, 2019. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI
Attorney Alan Dershowitz (R) stands next to President Donald Trump at a reception in the White House on December 11, 2019. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 17 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team has added two high-profile attorneys, a member of the group said Friday -- former O.J. Simpson adviser Alan Dershowitz and Bill Clinton investigator Kenneth Starr.

The additions were acknowledged by Trump attorney Jay Sekulow.

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Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who was hired as an impeachment adviser by the White House last year, and Jane Raskin, who had a leading role in defending Trump in the Russia investigation, will also argue for Trump's defense in the Senate trial.

The president's legal team, comprised of about 20 attorneys, has been assembled by White House counsel Pat Cippilone. He and Sekulow will lead the defense. The trial, which formally began Thursday, will begin its major phase Tuesday.

Trump faces two charges -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- related to his pressing Ukraine last year to announce investigations of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. House Democrats sent the articles of impeachment to the upper chamber earlier this week.

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Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor, said Thursday he will "address the constitutional arguments against impeachment and removal," defend the "integrity of the Constitution" and "prevent the creation of a dangerous constitutional precedent."

Dershowitz has previously worked in multiple high-profile cases, including those involving Simpson and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. He's also a frequent and conservative political commentator.

Starr is a former federal appeals court judge and special prosecutor who investigated Clinton in 1999 for his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. Recently, he was fired as president of Baylor University and later resigned as chancellor and law professor over claims that sex abuse and rape accusations on campus were mishandled by the university.

Robert Ray, another addition, was a prosecutor during the 1980s who investigated a real estate scandal involving the Clintons, known as Whitewater.

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