Harvard professor and Trump legal team member Alan Dershowitz defended the president from claims made in former national security adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming book, asserting that the claims would not amount to an impeachable offense even if they are true.
Dershowitz appeared in front of the Senate on Monday to offer the White House team’s first response to allegations reportedly made in Bolton’s tell-all on his time working in the Trump administration. A manuscript of the unpublished book, reported by the New York Times on Sunday, said President Trump told Bolton that Ukraine would not receive military aid until it agreed to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, and his son Hunter Biden, 49.
“If the president, any president, were to have done what the Times reported about the content of the Bolton manuscript, that would not constitute an impeachable offense,” Dershowitz said.
“Let me repeat: Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense. That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution,” Dershowitz continued. “You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using words like ‘quid pro quo’ and ‘personal benefit.'”
Alan Dershowitz: “Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense. That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution.” pic.twitter.com/clD3nsCaeb
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 28, 2020
Sen. Ted Cruz has argued along similar lines, contending that Trump was justified in asking for investigations into the Bidens in a July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Cruz said that enough evidence of potential corruption between the Bidens and Ukraine has surfaced that Trump’s request for investigation was warranted.
During the Obama administration, then-President Barack Obama tapped Biden to oversee U.S. relations with Ukraine. While Biden was leading foreign policy in the region, a Ukrainian energy company hired his son to sit on its board of directors, for which he was paid $50,000 a month.
The younger Biden has a history of drug addiction and abuse and has entered rehab multiple times. In 2014, he was kicked out of the Navy after testing positive for cocaine. He was recently entangled in a paternity suit with an Arkansas woman and former D.C. stripper, and, on Monday, he agreed to pay child support for their baby.
