President Trump’s opponents say he believes he’s “above the law,” but famed constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz says are simply “weaponizing a cliche.”
In an interview Tuesday with the Washington Examiner, Dershowitz said Trump’s detractors, many of whom are in the media, are mischaracterizing the president’s legal team and its stated argument about executive authority in the context of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
It was suggested by reporters and commentators repeatedly on Monday that Trump and his legal team believe he is “above the law” after his lawyers argued in letters and TV appearances that Trump could not be prosecuted by his own Justice Department, especially without having been impeached by Congress first. Trump seemed to argue that even if this did happen, it was within his authority to pardon himself.
At the White House press briefing Monday, NBC reporter Peter Alexander asked Sarah Sanders, “Does the President believe that he is above the law?”
“Certainly not,” she said. “The president hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Alexander then asked whether Trump believed “the framers [of the Constitution] envisioned a system where the president can pardon himself, where the president could be above the law?” and “So I guess, simply put, does the president believe he is above the law?”
Sanders each time said that Trump doesn’t and said, “Certainly no one is above the law.”
Dershowitz, who has been in personal contact with the White House, said Trump’s legal team is merely arguing its interpretation of Trump’s constitutional authority and his oversight of the Justice Department, not making a sweeping argument that he is “above the law.”
“The claim that President Trump is above the law has become a cliche,” Dershowitz said. “What he and his legal team are asserting is that the law provides them certain protections and immunities. That should surprise no one who is familiar with the Constitution. The Constitution also provides immunities for members of Congress. … That doesn’t place them above the law. That is the law.”
“I think it’s fair to say that those people who are arguing that he is above the law are weaponizing a cliche,” Dershowitz said.
But the “above the law” quote was widely used by other journalists.
“It’s fitting that just as Donald Trump passed the 500th day of his despicable presidency, he marked the occasion by tweeting that he is above the law, declaring that he has ‘the absolute right to PARDON myself,’” wrote liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg.
“Trump’s above-the-law presidency,” read a CNN.com headline Wednesday.
Steve Benen, a producer for MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” wrote that “Trump’s lawyers make the case that he not only can’t obstruct justice, but also that he can’t be subpoenaed. In their vision, the president is effectively above the law, capable of dictating the terms, scope, and duration of any federal investigation, for any reason and at any time.”
[Related: Sarah Sanders: Trump does not believe he’s above the law]
