J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz speaks to reporters during a break in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, January 29, 2020.
Here’s what Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz argued to the Senate yesterday:
“If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” If what he did merely enriched him, say, financially, Dershowitz continued, that might be an impeachable offense. “But a complex middle case is, ‘I want to be elected. I think I’m a great president. I think I’m the greatest president there ever was. And if I’m not elected, the national interest will suffer greatly.’”
“That,” Dershowitz concluded, “cannot be an impeachable offense.”
By which logic, Watergate was not an impeachable offense, since the attempted burglary at the Democratic National Committee’s office was intended to boost Richard Nixon’s re-election prospects, and Nixon surely believed his re-election was in the national interest. By which logic, to cite the famous Trump quote, if Trump shot the Democratic nominee in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, that wouldn’t be an impeachable offense, since it would boost his re-election prospects and he believes his re-election is in the national interest.
Among the many things Dershowitz is calling into question, I regret to say, is the value of a Harvard law degree. One or two more days of Dershowitz for the Defense and the law school may have to reduce its tuition.
