Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

On January 17, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Pamela Brown reported that attorneys Ken Starr, Alan Dershowitz, and Robert Ray are all expected to join President Donald Trump’s legal team for his impeachment trial in the United States Senate. The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey reported that former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will also be joining the team. Combined, Starr, Dershowitz, Bondi, and Ray have made at least 365 weekday Fox News appearances since January 2019. 

Starr is a former independent counsel whose work led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. He also was president and chancellor of Baylor University until he was forced to leave the school following harsh criticism of his handling of sexual assaults. Starr has recently provided Fox with reliably pro-Trump analysis of the House hearings and debates around impeachment, accepting that Trump did seek an investigation into his political opponent but refusing to acknowledge wrongdoing because there wasn’t a “corrupt bargain.” Starr had previously said that Trump’s statement of “no quid pro quo” sufficiently “covered himself” from consequences, despite considerable evidence that there was a quid pro quo with Ukrainian security aid and the investigation Trump sought. Starr, who was a Fox News contributor until joining Trump’s legal team, has made at least 125 Fox News appearances since January 2019.

Dershowitz, a Harvard emeritus professor of law and reported sexual predator, has also given Fox News consistently pro-Trump commentary, arguing that impeachment is “unconstitutional” because even if Trump did put “electoral interests before the national interests,” it wouldn’t “even be close to being an impeachable offense.” Dershowitz is being sued by Jeffrey Epstein trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre, who reported Dershowitz for sexual assault. After months of appearing on Fox News without addressing the reports, Dershowitz protested that he had a “perfect, perfect sex life during the relevant period of time” and said that Giuffre is a “sleazy” person. Dershowitz has made at least 110 Fox News appearances since January 2019.

Bondi is the former attorney general of Florida who memorably chose not to sue Trump University in 2016 shortly after then-candidate Trump donated $25,000 to her reelection campaign. She has also provided Fox News with standard pro-Trump commentary, calling impeachment “a sham from the beginning” and attempting to discredit former special counsel Robert Mueller for being associated with “the same attorney who represented one of Clinton’s people.” She also lied that Mueller “found no collusion, no obstruction.” Bondi has made at least 60 appearances on Fox News since January 2019. 

Like Starr, Ray is a former Whitewater independent counsel and special prosecutor against President Clinton. Ray has argued that the Senate should dismiss the articles of impeachment against Trump out of hand because, as Fox host Laura Ingraham said, “There’s no crime here.” Ray has also been cited by Fox hosts to defend the Trump administration against both impeachment and the Mueller report. Ray also dismissed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s admission of a quid pro quo with Ukraine on camera during a press briefing, because “a contentious press briefing is not the place” to have that discussion. Ray has made at least 70 Fox News appearances since January 2019.