Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz argued Monday that Democrats who didn’t want to take down former President Bill Clinton shouldn’t now be gunning for the impeachment of President Trump.
“We need a single standard: If you would not go after Bill Clinton, don’t go after Donald Trump,” Dershowitz said in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Monday.
The comments come after prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York claimed Friday that the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal before the 2016 election were made “in coordination with and at the direction of individual one,” a reference many believe is Trump.
Dershowitz said if Clinton had done the same thing, Democrats wouldn’t have any problem with it.
“Let’s assume when Bill Clinton was running for president, Paula Jones came up to him and said, ‘Unless you pay me $130,000, I will reveal our affair,’” Dershowitz said. “And let’s assume Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton together did exactly what is alleged that Donald Trump and Cohen did together. I guarantee you the New York Times, NBC, MSNBC would be railing against any prosecutor who dared to suggest that this was a violation of the campaign finance law. Everybody would be on the other side of this issue.”
Although Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has claimed that the payments were not affiliated with the campaign, Cohen pleaded guilty in August to charges including tax evasion, willful cause of unlawful corporate contribution, and excessive campaign contribution.
Democrats have seized on the issue and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., called the payments “impeachable offenses” if Trump directed them.
“The new Congress will not try to shield the president,” Nadler said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “We will try to get to the bottom of this in order to serve the American people and to stop this massive fraud on the American people.”
