2 lawyers on Trump defense team shared Epstein as a client

Two of the lawyers on President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team have shared another client: Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr both helped the late hedge fund manager and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein win a lenient sentence for abusing underaged girls.

Dershowitz and Starr, both prominent lawyers, are expected to play key roles when Trump's legal team begins presenting its defense on Saturday. Over the course of their legal careers, both have proven no strangers to controversy.

Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor emeritus, helped O J Simpson win acquittal on murder charges, labelled a woman who was raped by boxer Mike Tyson as "hardly the naive virgin she pretended to be", and famously defended "Queen of Mean" hotelier Leona Helmsley on tax evasion charges.

Starr, a former solicitor general and federal appeals court judge, is best known as the independent counsel who made public the graphic details of President Bill Clinton's sexual encounters with a White House intern that led to his impeachment.

Starr later was forced out of his job at Baylor University amid allegations that the university had mishandled several cases in which football players were accused of attacking women.

In the lead-up to Trump's impeachment trial, both attorneys have faced some of the toughest scrutiny of their careers for their connections to Epstein.

Epstein, a hedge fund manager who worked with the super wealthy, over the years socialized with Trump, Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew.

He killed himself in August while in federal custody as he awaited trial on a new set of federal sex trafficking charges that could have sent him to prison for life. The handling of his case in earlier years raised questions about whether Epstein had been handled by authorities with kid gloves, because of his status, wealth and powerful connections.

Dershowitz, in an interview with the AP, said he expected the scrutiny over his representation of Epstein and had spoken to the president about it before he was hired.

Trump insisted to him that he is unbothered by the Epstein connections, the lawyer said.

"He said he's fully aware of it, and it shouldn't be a factor," Dershowitz said. "He said it was not an issue for him."
"Trump believes he can do anything he wants."