Monday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz explained how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s effort to thwart President Donald Trump’s impeachment process in the U.S. Senate was an abuse of power.
He also said it was obstruction of the Senate, which in addition to abuse of power, are the two charges facing Trump.
“There’s nothing in the Constitution about articles of impeachment,” he said. “There’s nothing in the Constitution about forwarding. As far as the American public is concerned, the president has been impeached. And that’s why it’s utterly unfair to suggest we don’t have to allow the Senate now to acquit him. There are two alternatives. If he hasn’t been impeached, Nancy Pelosi has to go to the media and say, ‘Please, all the media that says he has been impeached, please withdraw that. He’s not impeached. He’s presumed innocent. He’s absolutely innocent. His status hasn’t changed.'”
“If he has been impeached, the Senate has to start its trial as soon as they choose to,” Dershowitz continued. “Remember, the Senate is the sole judge of guilty or innocence of impeachment. And so the Democrats can’t have it both ways. They can’t sound the one hand — to the public we are saying he is impeached, but for the Senate, we’re saying he is not impeached. You know what I say? This is obstruction of the Senate — exactly the same charge that made against the president. This is abuse of power from exactly the same charge they made against the president. It is wrong constitutionally. It is wrong morally. And it is wrong politically.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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