Porter & Comstock

[loetar44]

Just read in Roy Z. Chamlee’s “Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment” that Gen. Horace Porter on May 10, 1865 was removed from the Military Commission (like Maj. Gen. C. B. Comstock) because of defense objections that he would be biased. Strange, because IMO the defense had no opportunity to object, because no defense counsel had attended the sessions of the tribunal, which started in secret on May 8, without any defense counsel. I thought the first defense witnesses were heard on May 12. Am I right? Was the proper reason to remove Porter and Comstock because they were uncooperative in the eyes of Holt and Stanton?