President Trump’s lawyers are discussing hiring Alan Dershowitz, the famed lawyer whom the president has frequently reached out to for advice, to help with aspects of his impeachment defense in the all-but-certain Senate trial, people familiar with the discussions said.
No formal offer has been made to Mr. Dershowitz, the people familiar with the discussions said.
Still, some Trump advisers would like to bring him onto the team of outside legal advisers to guide them on aspects of the impeachment that relate to the Constitution, those familiar with the discussions said.
Mr. Dershowitz declined to comment.
Mr. Trump’s advisers have been looking for someone to supplement the legal team for several weeks. Initial plans to hire Trey Gowdy, a former congressman from South Carolina, fell apart.
Hiring Mr. Dershowitz is not without risks. He was a part of a legal team in 2006 that defended Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. Epstein was charged this year with sex trafficking and was in prison as those charges worked through the court system; he killed himself in August. One woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has claimed in court filings related to Mr. Epstein that he made her available to Mr. Dershowitz for sex, which he has strongly denied.
Mr. Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard, has represented other prominent criminal defendants, including O.J. Simpson, Roman Polanski and Mike Tyson.
A frequent television commentator, Mr. Dershowitz often defended Mr. Trump publicly during the Russia investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, over the last few years. Mr. Trump asked Mr. Dershowitz to come to the lectern at a Hanukkah ceremony at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
And Representative Mark Meadows, Republican from North Carolina and a confidant of Mr. Trump, told the House Freedom Caucus podcast on Wednesday that he favored the idea of Mr. Dershowitz.
“I have advocated that there needs to be one other attorney that’s added to the mix for the president, and that is Alan Dershowitz,” Mr. Meadows said.