Alan Dershowitz, the 81-year-old Harvard Law professor hired by President Trump’s legal team, railed against House Democrats’ “vague and open-ended” impeachment charges Monday.
“Purely non-criminal conduct, including ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of justice,’ are outside the range of impeachable offences,” Dershowitz told the Senate in his hour-long address.
“That is the key argument I am presenting today.”
The constitutional scholar said he feared future presidents would be charged under “unconstitutional grounds.”
“‘Abuse of power’ is an accusation easily leveled by political opponents against controversial presidents in our long history,” he said.
“Many presidents have been accused of abusing their power.”
Dershowitz, a former adviser to O.J. Simpson’s legal team, made the remarks on the second day of arguments from the White House legal team, who will finish presenting their defense on Tuesday.
He also railed against the new bombshell from John Bolton’s upcoming tell-all memoir that President Trump allegedly confessed to withholding nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine until it committed to investigating Joe Biden.
“Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to an impeachable offense,” he said.
It was a complete 180-degree flip from his position during the 1998 impeachment trial of Bill Clinton where Dershowitz argued a crime was not necessary to impeach.
The celebrity lawyer, 81, said he had gone back and after “extensive research” found the framers only intended impeachment be used for criminal acts such as treason and bribery.
“If you don’t like the president’s policies and climate change, vote for the other candidate, find a candidate who has better policies on climate change,” he said.
“If you don’t like the president’s tweets, find somebody who doesn’t tweet — that will be easy — but don’t allow your subjective judgments to determine what is and is not an impeachable offense,” he continued.
Dershowitz’s opponents say Trump has been charged with two “common law” crimes, and while they aren’t part of the federal criminal code, have been the law of the land for centuries, which means Trump is eligible for impeachment.
Dramatically bringing with him to the stand weathered legal books from the 18th century, the attorney accused a Democrat-controlled Congress of using impeachment as a political tool.
“Quid pro quo alone is not a basis for an abuse of power. It’s part of the way foreign policy has been operated by presidents since the beginning of time,” he said.
The Harvard Law professor has made headlines himself over the past year for representing convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein during his 2005 trial and negotiating his controversial 2008 plea deal with then-US Attorney Alex Acosta.
Accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre named Dershowitz as one of the men she claims the late Epstein lent her out to for sex, allegations the attorney has vehemently denied.
– NYPost
