Trump picked Dershowitz to lead impeachment trial because he's 'magnificent on TV': report

President Donald Trump's widely panned decision to pick notorious Jeffrey Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz to lead his impeachment trial defense was made because the president liked the way Dershowitz performed on cable news shows.

Axios's Jonathan Swan reports that many aides in the White House were wary of making Dershowitz the face of the president's impeachment defense team because of his controversial work on behalf of Epstein, an accused child sex trafficker and longtime friend of Trump's.

In the end, however, these aides were overruled because "Trump thinks Dershowitz is magnificent on TV," one source tells Swan.

In addition to Dershowitz, Trump also selected former Whitewater special prosecutor Ken Starr and attorney Robert Ray to handle his defense at next week's Senate impeachment trial. All three men have appeared regularly on Fox News, where they have claimed that the case against the president does not rise to the level of impeachment.

Trump's impeachment trial is scheduled to begin this coming Tuesday.