Dershowitz: No and No to Trump's Impeachable Offenses

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Dershowitz: 'No and No' to Trump's Impeachable Offenses

(AP)
By Jeffrey Rodack | Thursday, 24 October 2019 12:42 PM

Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law professor emeritus, accused those seeking to impeach President Donald Trump of engaging in an “Alice in Wonderland process.”

He made his comments in a column posted Thursday on the Gatestone Institute’s website.

“The goal of the impeach-at-any-cost cadre has always been the same: impeach and remove Trump, regardless of whether or not he did anything warranting removal,” he said.

“The means -- the alleged impeachable offenses -- have changed, as earlier ones have proved meritless. The search for the perfect impeachable offense against Trump is reminiscent of overzealous prosecutors who target the defendant first and then “search for the crime with which to charge him.”

“All civil libertarians should be concerned about an Alice in Wonderland process in which the search for an impeachable crime precedes the evidence that such a crime has actually been committed.”

Dershowitz said there are key questions about the impeachment process currently underway.

“Did President Trump commit impeachable offenses when he spoke on the phone to the president of Ukraine and/or when he directed members of the Executive Branch to refuse to cooperate, absent a court order, with congressional Democrats who are seeking his impeachment?” he said.

“The answers are plainly no and no. There is a constitutionally significant difference between a political ‘sin,’ on the one hand, and a crime or impeachable offenses, on the other.”

And he noted that even if there had been a quid pro quo exchange, the president’s actions do not constitute a crime or an impeachable offense.