Attorney Alan Dershowitz defended his controversial argument that President Trump believed his reelection was in the public interest when he called for an investigation into Joe Biden.
During the question and answer portion of the Senate impeachment trial, the Trump defense team lawyer said, “Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest, and, mostly, you’re right. Your election is in the public interest. And, if a president did something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”
His remarks were ripped by many, including former President Bill Clinton’s press secretary Joe Lockhart, who said, “This is what you hear from Stalin, this is what you hear from Mussolini, this is what you hear from Hitler, all of the authoritarian people who rationalized, in some cases genocide, based on what was in the public interest. It was startling.”
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Dershowitz, 81, explained that he was answering a question on motive, and his remarks were misconstrued by the press.
“I was asked the question by a senator. The question was: Does quid pro quo matter? And my answer is, it matters if what the president did is illegal or wrong. But if the president did something completely lawful, the fact that part of his motivation may have been to help his election cannot be the quid pro quo,” he explained.
MUST WATCH: Alan Dershowitz responds to political and media backlash over his controversial comments in defense of the President on the Senate floor. #FNS #FoxNews #ImpeachmentTrial pic.twitter.com/zIAlVjglKx
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) February 2, 2020
Dershowitz claimed that his remarks were “deliberately wrenched out of context” by Democrats and some in the media because he was giving a strong defense of the president that could sway the final vote in favor of him.
He explained, “These folks have totally distorted, quite deliberately, because they saw that I was having an impact on some of the senators. So they deliberately distorted what I said and said, ‘Oh, even if it’s criminal, if the president thinks it’s in the best interest, it can’t be an impeachable offense.’ Nonsense. I never said that. The Wall Street Journal says I never said it. The New York Times says I never said it. And the fact that Schumer and Schiff and CNN say I said it, doesn’t make it true.”
Dershowitz’s role on the president’s impeachment team has largely concluded after the Senate voted on Friday to not hear from any additional witnesses. The trial is expected to be completed on Wednesday after senators vote to acquit or convict the president.
