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| Clinton prosecutor Ken Starr to defend Trump in impeachment | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| US President Donald Trump's defence team in his Senate trial will include special prosecutors from President Bill Clinton's impeachment. | US President Donald Trump's defence team in his Senate trial will include special prosecutors from President Bill Clinton's impeachment. |
| He will be represented by Ken Starr and Robert Ray, who investigated Mr Clinton, and Alan Dershowitz, whose past clients include OJ Simpson. | He will be represented by Ken Starr and Robert Ray, who investigated Mr Clinton, and Alan Dershowitz, whose past clients include OJ Simpson. |
| White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Mr Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow will lead the team, US media report. | White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Mr Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow will lead the team, US media report. |
| Opening statements in the Senate trial are expected next week. | Opening statements in the Senate trial are expected next week. |
| Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has also reportedly been asked to join the team. | |
| Mr Starr, Mr Ray and Mr Dershowitz will have speaking roles in the trial, according to Politico. | |
| Mr Dershowitz told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that he had spoken with the president on Wednesday about the case. | |
| "I agreed to do it as an independent constitutional scholar," Mr Dershowitz, a retired Harvard University law professor, said. "I take no position on the politics - just on the Constitution." | |
| He added he was "very, very concerned" about the precedent this impeachment could establish. | |
| "It could weaken the presidency and weaponise impeachment as a partisan tactic." | |
| Mr Dershowitz and Mr Starr both represented disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein during his 2008 abuse trial. | |
| Axios reported that some White House officials did not want Mr Dershowitz to join the team given his ties to Mr Epstein. | |
| Mr Starr was the US Department of Justice independent counsel who investigated the Whitewater affair, a scandal-plagued mid-1980s land venture in Arkansas involving Bill and Hillary Clinton. | |
| The inquiry ultimately uncovered unrelated evidence that Mr Clinton had been having an affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. | |
| The investigation culminated in the Democratic president's impeachment by the US House of Representatives in 1998. Mr Clinton was eventually acquitted by the Senate. | |
| Mr Ray succeeded Mr Starr as the independent counsel. | |
| Ms Lewinsky tweeted shortly after Mr Trump's team was announced: "This is definitely an 'are you kidding me?' kinda day", though she inserted an expletive. | |
| Mr Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives last month on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. | |
| Democrats have accused him of withholding millions in military aid to Ukraine to pressure them into investigating his political rival, former Vice-President Joe Biden. | |
| Mr Trump has denied these claims, calling the impeachment proceedings a partisan "hoax". |