Trump Defense Lawyer Now Joins the GOP As a Complete Joke

Philadelphia attorney Michael T. van der Veen has taken a starring role in Donald Trump’s impeachment defense over the last two days — and he’s also incurred both ridicule and political backlash. 

In day 1 of the Trump defense, van der Veen shockingly refused to answer questions relating to two key areas: when Trump first learned of the attack on the Capitol and the nature of his response, and whether Joe Biden, in fact, won the 2020 presidential election.

Later on Friday night, vandals spray-painted “TRAITOR” on the driveway of his suburban Philadelphia home, after he spent hours on the Senate floor hurling partisan invective and testily condemning the former president’s second impeachment trial as “constitutional cancel culture.”

A group of demonstrators calling him a “facist” gathered outside his Center City law office chanting, “When van der Veen lies, what do you do? Convict. Convict.”

And when he returned to the Senate podium Saturday for a debate over whether witnesses would be called to testify about Trump’s mindset during the January 6 insurrection, his suggestion that he would seek to depose at least 100 people at his office drew audible, bipartisan guffaws from the room — and set the internet ablaze.

“None of these depositions should be done by Zoom,” he said. “These depositions should be done in person, in my office in Philly-delphia.”

Van der Veen appeared confused by the response that followed his pronunciation of the city and his threat to drag people to his office there.  “I don’t know how many civil lawyers are here, but that’s the way it works folks,” he shouted over the chuckling. “I don’t know why you’re laughing. It is civil process. That is the way lawyers do it.”

His behavior turned himself and Philadelphia  — the place where Trump famously declared that “bad things happen” — into internet fodder.