Dershowitz To Argue Impeachment Sets Dangerous Constitution Precedent - Trump Legal Team

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published January 17, 2020 | 11:40 PM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2020) Harvard Law school professor Alan Dershowitz will argue at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the US Senate that the House of Representatives attempt to remove the president from office undermines the Constitution, the Trump legal team said in a press release on Friday.

"Professor Dershowitz will present oral arguments at the Senate trial to address the constitutional arguments against impeachment and removal," the release said. "He is participating in this impeachment trial to defend the integrity of the Constitution and to prevent the creation of a dangerous constitutional precedent."

Dershowitz is considered non-partisan, having opposed the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton and often admitting voting for Hillary Clinton in frequent television appearances in which he argues that the House of Representatives impeachment violates the Constitution.

Neither of the two impeachment charges against Trump - abuse of power and obstructing Congress - is found in the US Constitution, Dershowitz said in an interview on CSPAN earlier this week.

"[The charges against Trump] are the kinds of broad, general, vague open-ended criteria that can be weaponized against virtually any president when the opposing party has a majority in the House of Representatives," Dershowitz said.

In addition, Dershowitz called the Trump impeachment the "nightmare" that US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton talked about in describing political relations in the United States.

"Hamilton said the one thing he feared most, that impeachment would turn on the number of votes each party had rather than the guilt or innocence of the person being impeachment," Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz has defended a long list of celebrities, reversing a conviction of British socialite Claus von Bulow, who was accused of trying to murder his wife, and leading a defamation lawsuit against Polish Cardinal Jozef Glemp, who accused US Rabbi Avi Weiss of attacking nuns at a disputed sight at the Auschwitz concentration camp.