Dershowitz: ‘Anybody Who Seriously Considered’ Invoking 25th Amendment Should No Longer Be Working for the U.S. Gov’t

During an interview with New York AM 970 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz reacted to reports Department of Justice officials, including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, considered invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office.

“Any talk about the 25th Amendment is clearly wrong,” he said to host John Catsimatidis. “The 25th Amendment is designed for Woodrow Wilson having a stroke, President Reagan being shot and being incapacitated for a few days while surgery occurred. That’s its purpose and its scope. You can’t use the 25th Amendment if you disagree with the president, even if you think he’s committing impeachable offenses. If you think he’s committing impeachable offenses, then impeach him. But the 25th Amendment is sacred. It should be reserved only for situations where either the president admits he’s unable to serve, or the vice president and a majority of the cabinet acknowledge that he can’t serve, that he is incapacitated for physical or psychiatric reasons. It shouldn’t be abused in the way that it is alleged that Rod Rosenstein wanted to abuse it.”

“If the [allegations] are correct and if there were serious discussions about wiring Rod Rosenstein, having him go into the president, catching him in some statement, and then invoking the 25th amendment, that’s a serious, serious challenge to our Constitution,” he continued. “There ought to be hearings about it. There ought to be concerns within the inspector general of the Justice Department. We have to get to the bottom of this and find out if there was really an attempt to coup d’etat. Treason is defined in the Constitution and means only taking arms against the country, or giving aid and comfort to our enemies. So treason wouldn’t apply in a situation like this. But, violating Justice Department policies seem like that may have occurred if this was a serious attempt. Now Rosenstein said he was joking about wiring the president.  Well, A – that is not something you joke about, and B – McCabe said that wasn’t a joke. It was being seriously considered. We have to get the facts. We have to get to the bottom of this.”

“I think the inspector general really has to look into this,” Dershowitz added. “And anybody who seriously considered invoking the 25th Amendment should no longer be working for the United States government.”

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