Dominick Mastrangelo reports for the Washington Examiner on one well-known liberal legal scholar‘s response to the Trump impeachment inquiry.
Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz claimed Democrats are running an illegitimate impeachment process and that President Trump does not deserve to be removed from office.
“I’m a liberal Democrat,” Dershowitz said on Mark Levin’s radio program Thursday. “And I’m on the side of Donald Trump on this issue.”
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.
An intelligence agency whistleblower alleged the call to have been part of a quid pro quo between the United States and Ukraine, with foreign aid being used as a bargaining chip.
“I voted for Hillary Clinton,” Dershowitz said after watching five days of public impeachment hearings on the Ukraine scandal. “Because I believe in the Constitution more than I believe in partisan politics.”
Dershowitz said both Democrats and Republicans have misused the power of impeachment over the years, but Democrats have no case against Trump.
The Constitution dictates a high crime or misdemeanor must have taken place in order to remove a sitting president from office.
“There’s no crime there,” he said. “You can argue that maybe there is an abuse of the foreign policy, but there is no crime there.”