One of the attorneys who represented Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial ran into a buzzsaw on CNN on Tuesday morning after he tried to disparage the work done by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection which was also the centerpiece of the former president's last impeachment.
Appearing less than 24 hours after the committee revealed they were making multiple Trump criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, David Schoen claimed the committee was a sham because it was not truly bipartisan despite Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) taking part.
Toward the end of his attempt to make the final report from the committee appear illegitimate, Schoen was put on the spot by both CNN's John Avlon and Don Lemon who picked apart his arguments and complaints.
"I think it was an illegitimate process," he insisted. "There are additional conflicts, I'm talking about the process. You have Mr. [Jamie] Raskin, Mr. [Adam] Schiff on there who have written books about the event laying blame -- they have a personal interest in ensuring that the committee comes out with the right result."
Schoen then added, "All I'm saying is the American public deserved to have members of the committee who weren't marked by conflicts having a full and fair investigation of all aspects of this. That's why I'm disappointed."
"Respectfully though, the problem isn't process, right?" Avlon shot back. "The problem is January 6th and the actions that led up to it. And of course, you've got Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger on the committee. And what was striking yesterday, I think in the videos that were shown and the testimony, is that the vast majority was from Republicans, Trump loyalists who recognize what occurred and would caution the president against pursuing this path, but he did anyway."
As Schoen attempted to protest, Lemon jumped in.
"Just real quick, I want to follow up on something you said," Lemon remarked. "You said that the people, that you think that many people won't accept the result because of who the messenger is -- why does a messenger matter so much more than the actual evidence and the act?"
"Well, because evidence can be skewed by the messenger," the attorney parried.
"Not when it comes to the Department of Justice," Lemon lectured. "It's not -- the evidence matters over who the messenger is. Come on, let's be real here."
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