Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional law professor, defended himself for joining President Trump’s impeachment defense team despite his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Well look, I also defended O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow,” Dershowitz said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when pressed about his connection to Epstein. “I have defended some of the most controversial people in American history.”
The 81-year-old lawyer called it “pure McCarthyism” to hold lawyers responsible for defending controversial clients.
“I did nothing wrong in any of those cases, and I will proceed to make my argument in this case without concern for what people think about who I represented in the past. That is who I am, and who I have always been, and who I will continue to be as long as the good Lord gives me strength to defend people who you don’t like, and I don’t like sometimes,” he added.
Dershowitz said he would be responsible for making a constitutional argument in front of the Senate that the impeachment charges brought forth do not constitute high crimes and misdemeanors. He said that his argument would bring a swift end to Trump’s impeachment trial if the senators were on board with it.
The lawyer noted in a statement announcing his intention to join the legal team that he is “nonpartisan when it comes to the Constitution — he opposed the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and voted for Hillary Clinton.”
Several of Epstein’s victims have accused Dershowitz of having sex with them when they were minors. He has denied the allegations, claiming to have a “perfect sex life.”
Dershowitz represented Epstein in a 2008 plea deal that resulted in only 13 months in prison and allowed the sex offender to leave jail to go to work. Epstein, 66, was arrested on federal charges last summer following a bevy of new allegations by dozens of women. He was found dead in his New York prison cell in August of an apparent suicide.
