Members of Donald Trump’s impeachment defence team donated money to some of the senators who will ultimately decide the president’s fate.

According to a report released by the Center for Responsive Politics on Monday, former independent counsels Ken Starr and Robert Ray both made substantial campaign contributions to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last year prior to joining Mr Trump’s team.

Mr Starr gave $2,800 to Mr McConnell in July 2019. In September, shortly after the impeachment inquiry began in the House, Mr Ray gave Mr McConnell the maximum allowable contribution for a primary or general election, $5,600.

In addition, in 2017 Mr Starr also gave $2,700 to Senator Lindsey Graham, an unbending ally to Mr Trump throughout his presidency.

One of Mr Trump’s personal attorneys, Jay Sekulow, has made donations to Republican senators for the past decade, including Senators John Thune and Ted Cruz, and he gave thousands to the 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

Mr Romney has managed to frustrate fellow Republicans in the Senate by arguing that he’d like to call witnesses to testify during the impeachment trial. He has found some common ground with Mr Graham, however, as both have expressed interest in seeing the contents of former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book manuscript, which may contain information relevant to the trial.

Mr Trump himself is also fundraising to support senators who will ultimately rule on his impeachment. In November, he established a joint fundraising committee to assist Senator David Perdue in his re-election campaign.

Not all of Mr Trump’s supporters are Republicans, however. Alan Dershowitz, a frequent donor to Democrats who has defended Mike Tyson, Jim Bakker and had ties to Jeffrey Epstein, has been an outspoken supporter of the president.

Mr Starr and Mr Ray both investigated President Bill Clinton around the time of his impeachment trial. Despite their roles in that case, both men have been outspoken critics of impeachment in the case of Mr Trump.

“In this particular juncture in America’s history, the Senate is being called to sit as the high court of impeachment all too frequently,” Mr Starr said. “Indeed, we are living in what I think can aptly be described as the age of impeachment.”

Though Mr Starr has stepped up to defend the president, Mr Trump hasn’t always held his newfound ally in high esteem.