Trump's defense team for Senate impeachment trial is taking shape

President Trump's defense team for his Senate impeachment trial is taking shape, reports NPR.

Here are some of the lawyers expected to be in the room when the Senate trial begins:

Pat Cipollone

Cipollone will lead the team. He played a key role in the House impeachment inquiry, writing aggressive letters to House investigators to deny congressional subpoenas. He mainly stayed out of public view, but he will now take a more prominent role. 

"I know that he's held in high esteem by the president," said Ty Cobb, a former White House lawyer.

Trump picked Cipollone, who served as an outside adviser during the Mueller probe, to replace Don McGahn as White House counsel in October 2018.

Jay Sekulow

Sekulow is a personal attorney to Trump. He was a key player in the president's defense during former special counsel Robert Mueller's two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"He's probably the best constitutional lawyer who will be participating," said Cobb, who worked closely with Sekulow on the White House response to the Russia investigation. 

Sekulow, the chief counsel for the firm American Center for Law and Justice, has also represented Trump on other matters, including the fight over the president's tax returns. He is known for his advocacy on religious liberty issues.

"As the president's private counsel, since I've been involved in all of these inquiries since the beginning, we thought it was then appropriate," said Sekulow of joining the impeachment defense. 

Pat Philbin

Pat Philbin is a deputy to Cipollone. A graduate of Harvard Law School and former partner at Kirkland and Ellis, Philbin clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Philbin later served in senior positions in the George W. Bush Justice Department.

As deputy assistant attorney general, Philbin drafted opinions on behalf of the Bush administration in 2001, arguing that President George W. Bush had the authority under the Constitution to establish military commissions at Guantanamo Bay to try to punish people tied to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mike Purpura

Mike Purpura is another deputy to Cipollone. The former federal prosecutor and Justice Department official joined the White House at the same time as Cipollone.

A former associate counsel in the George W. Bush White House, Purpura negotiated with witnesses who testified in the House impeachment inquiry. For example, he met with Fiona Hill, Trump's former top adviser on Russia and Europe, to discuss her plans to comply with a congressional subpoena. Purpura later wrote a letter to Hill and her attorney outlining the White House's expectations of how she would protect executive privilege.

Alan Dershowitz 

A professor emeritus at Harvard Law School who wrote a book called The Case Against Impeaching Trump, last week told NPR's Here and Now that President Trump had considered adding him to the team. "The reports are true, but I can't comment about whether or not I've agreed to join his legal team. But there's been some discussion of that," Dershowitz said.

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