As constitutional scholars laid out criteria before Congress to impeach President Trump, law professor Alan Dershowitz attempted to poke a hole in the narrative that experts attempted to paint.
“Professor Gerhardt says that we teach our law students always to comply with congressional subpoenas,” Dershowitz tweeted during the hearings Wednesday. “No. We teach our students that we have an adversary system which permits the executive to challenge legislative actions.”
Professor Gerhardt says that we teach our law students always to comply with congressional subpoenas. No. We teach our students that we have an adversary system which permits the executive to challenge legislative actions.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) December 4, 2019
Since the formal impeachment proceedings into Trump began, Dershowitz — who says he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 — has spent time on cable news shows and on social media defending the president and denouncing the Democrats’ far-reaching efforts to remove him from office without a justified reason.
He has repeatedly said that while Trump might have misused his power in terms of foreign policy, “there is no crime there” that warrants impeachment.
The U.S. Constitution states that a high crime or misdemeanor must take place in order to remove a sitting president from office.
The investigation, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadership, centers on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump pressured the foreign leader to investigate a political rival.
Four legal scholars, Noah Feldman, Michael Gerhardt, Pamela Karlan, and Jonathan Turley, provided sworn testimony on Wednesday to the House Judiciary Committee on how Trump’s relations with Ukraine might fit into the needed standard for removal from office.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he “did nothing wrong” during a “perfect” call with Ukraine from which he “wanted nothing.”
Democrats are attempting to hang some of their impeachment pitch on what they allege to be an obstruction of justice by Trump after the White House indicated it would not comply with subpoenas or other requests for documents as part of the investigation.
Dershowitz has defended Trump on this front as well.
“We don’t live in a parliamentary democracy where a parliament can just vote to remove a leader,” he said.
