The immediately former president changed his Senate trial team over the weekend. He fired several lawyers and brought on two. One of the two may be playing an interesting double game while representing Trump.

FNC: “South Carolina lawyers Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier and former federal prosecutors Greg Harris, Johnny Gasser and Josh Howard had left the defense team by Saturday, a source said, calling it a mutual decision. The source said the lawyers left over a difference of opinion on the direction of the defense’s argument. Another anonymous source told the Associated Press Bowers and Barbier left because Trump wanted them to make election fraud allegations during the trial. Trump will now be represented by trial lawyers David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr.”

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Castor is the interesting player in this game. He was previously a Montgomery County, PA, District Attorney. Actually, he was the District Attorney who initially refused to prosecute Bill Cosby for his various nefarious shenanigans. But Castor also was a County Commissioner in Montco. Who else sat on that commission with him about ten years ago? Josh Shapiro, the current Democrat PA state AG who is up to his neck in PA election irregularities. Shapiro is the poster boy for a stolen PA election. To make it more melodramatic, there was also some bad blood between Castor and Shapiro when they served together in Montco.

So this could be a grudge match between old county foes, but on the national level. And why is Castor on the Trump legal team? Because Trump’s former team would not squarely focus on election irregularities. Castor will and that is a dagger aimed straight at Shapiro.

Castor has a controversial past in the PA GOP, as his feud with former GOP State Chairman Bob Asher is the stuff of cocktails and gleeful rumors. It would also be quite a tale if Castor is using Shapiro as a whack-a-mole to confirm his bonafides with PA Trumpsters so he can get a PA GOP nomination to run against Shapiro for PA governor in 2022.

Okay, how do I know this? I spent two decades as a GOP political consultant in PA. When old pals saw Castor’s name on the Trump legal team and realized the Shapiro tie-in my phone started ringing.

One particularly astute PA GOP veteran said, “Castor is a man with grudges and unfulfilled aspirations as Pennsylvania Governor. Ten years ago Castor ran against current PA Attorney General Josh Shaprio in a bitter and bloody county commissioner race. After sharing the spotlight as co-commissioners, Shapiro had a meteoric rise in PA politics and is well on his way to becoming governor, the role Castor has wanted for over two decades. If there’s one man with the power to take that away that prize from Shapiro, it’s Castor.”

It’s also a no loose gambit for Castor, as the trial is already effectively won given the recent test vote when only five Republican senators jumped ship on Trump. With Democrats perhaps intent on calling witnesses, this whole thing could turn into a circus that ends up in another Trump exoneration by the Senate. Why the Democrats want that is anybody’s guess. Why Bruce Castor may want it is now likely easy to figure out.