White House impeachment defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued the charges against President Trump would be tossed out by a judge in a court of law.
“This is a motion to dismiss case,” Dershowitz said late Monday on Fox News. “If it were a criminal case and a person were charged, say, with dishonesty, and then there were a list of things he did, the first thing you’d do is make a motion to dismiss because dishonesty isn’t a crime, and obstruction of Congress is not an impeachable offense.”
Opening arguments in Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate begin Tuesday, and the president faces two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The abuse of power allegation centers on a pressure campaign on Ukraine to investigate the president’s political foe. During a July 25 phone call, Trump himself asked the president of Ukraine to “do us a favor” and look into allegations of corruption against 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden.
The obstruction of Congress charge came as a result of the White House’s refusal to cooperate with House Democrats’ request for documents relating to foreign policy with Ukraine. The White House legal team has cited executive privilege as a justification for its noncompliance.
Dershowitz last week was tapped, along with former special prosecutor Ken Starr, to be a part of Trump’s legal defense team.
“The only threat to the Constitution that House Democrats have brought to light is their own degradation of the impeachment process and trampling of the separation of powers,” the Trump defense team said in a legal briefing filed on Monday. “The diluted standard asserted here would permanently weaken the Presidency and forever alter the balance among the branches of government in a manner that offends the constitutional design established by the Founders.”
Meanwhile, the White House has been working with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for weeks to ensure a speedy trial. Recent reports indicated that Trump has urged Republican leadership to introduce a motion to dismiss the case on the first day, but Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that such a measure will likely fail.
The president has called his impeachment a “totally partisan witch hunt” led by “lunatic leftist Democrats” who are seeking to overturn the result of the 2016 election.
….the Ukraine Hoax that became the Impeachment Scam. Must get the ICIG answers by Friday because this is the guy who lit the fuse. So if he wants to clear his name, prove that his office is indeed incompetent.” @DevinNunes @MariaBartiromo @FoxNews The ICIG never wanted proof!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020
Dershowitz warned that a quick trial could bring negative political outcomes for the president or, at the very least, open the possibility of Republicans losing the votes of more moderate senators under pressure from constituents to conduct a fair trial.
“Do the American people want to see an end to a trial so quickly?” he asked. “I think that becomes a political issue.”
During the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, Dershowitz expressed a different view of what rises to the level of an impeachable offense than he holds now.
“It certainly doesn’t have to be a crime if you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don’t need a technical crime,” he said in 1992.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper pressed the former Harvard Law School professor about the contradiction on Monday.
“I didn’t do the research back then,” Dershowitz responded. “I’ve done the research now — I wasn’t wrong … I am just far more correct now than I was then.”
