Saturday, January 16, 2021

Allan Dershowitz Says He Won’t Represent President Trump in Senate Impeachment Trial  January 16, 2021












Harvard law school professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has reportedly said he will not defend President Trump in a possible Senate impeachment trial following reports that he was open to backing Trump again.

Dershowitz, an expert in constitutional and criminal law, represented Trump during his first Senate impeachment trial where the president was acquitted of abuse of power and obstruction of justice charges.

In a statement to the Boston Globe, Dershowitz said he will not participate in a possible second Senate trial against the president.

“This is political theater, and I’m neither a politician or an actor, so I don’t see a role for a real lawyer to play in this show,” he said.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Dershowitz was open to the prospect of defending Trump again “in the court of public opinion” in an “unofficial capacity.”

In an op-ed for The Hil published Thursday, Dershowitz said while he found Trump’s remarks to his supporters last Wednesday before the Capitol Hill siege “disturbing,” they did not “meet the basis for removal under the Constitution.”

“Just as a president should be held to account for a violation of the Constitution, then so should the House when it exceeds its authority granted by the Constitution,” Dershowitz wrote.

Dershowitz said Democrats’ 
impeachment violated “six separate provisions of the Constitution.”

“First, it violated the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from abridging free speech. By impeaching Trump for free speech that was protected in the unanimous Supreme Court decision in the case of Brandenburg versus Ohio, the First Amendment was violated,” he explained.

This is an excerpt from LaCorte News.

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