BREAKING: Alan Dershowitz Distances Himself From Trump Legal Team: 'I'm Not a Full-Fledged Member'

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.mediaite.com/online/alan-dershowitz-distances-himself-from-trump-legal-team-im-not-really-part-of-it/

By Colby HallJan 17th, 2020, 3:12 pm

Alan Dershowitz appeared on his SiriusXM show Friday afternoon with Mediate Founder Dan Abrams and created stark distance between himself and President Donald Trump’s legal defense team for the coming Senate impeachment trial.

Dershowitz told Abrams that he is not part of the Trump legal team — but that he will provide an hourlong constitutional defense of the president before the Senate. That would make the lawyer more of a witness for the Trump team than a member of his defense.

“I think it overstates it to say I’m a member of the Trump team. I was asked to present the constitutional argument that I would have presented had Hillary Clinton been elected and had she been impeached,” Dershowitz claimed, adding “I was asked to present my constitutional argument against impeachment. I will be there for one hour, basically, presenting my argument. But I’m not a full-fledged member of the defense team in any realistic sense of that term.”

</snip>

Holy shit - this is amateur hour over at the WH!

[ChubbyStar]

1. He has one foot in his underpants and the other out

I would like to think he is smoking crack and out of his gourd, sadly I believe he is a CRAVEN idiot.

[LiberalFighter]

18. More like both of his nuts hanging out the sides.

[BeyondGeography]

26. This is his second non-full-fledged member defense by my count

[EleanorR]

2. He's just floating the illusion that he is impartial

This coming from the man who said the president is more powerful than a king.

[Skinner]

3. Love this framing from Dershowitz:

"I was asked to present the constitutional argument that I would have presented had Hillary Clinton been elected and had she been impeached."

Lest all you hateful liberals think he is carrying water for Donald Trump... Think again! He is merely presenting the constitutional argument that he had previously worked up to defend Hillary Clinton from her inevitable impeachment. So this is totally fine.

/sarcasm

[dalton99a]

5. Yep.

[Dennis Donovan]

9. We all know they were going to start impeaching her on 1/21/17

...and who, in a Clinton WH, would've asked him to "defend" her? This guy's a bit self-important for a guy who defended OJ and Epstein.

[ChiTownDenny]

29. +1

[dewsgirl]

4. He needs to watch it...I foresee nothing good for him. ETTD

Of course, I hope he goes all in and the leaking begins.

[gratuitous]

6. Did we finally dig deep enough?

Alan Dershowitz at last showing some semblance of a conscience? We've plumbed that deep at last? Or is Alan just trying to wangle invitations to dinner parties on Martha's Vineyard?

[Johonny]

7. It's like his BS has BS,

[yardwork]

8. Could anyone be a bigger weasel than Dershowitz?

[Aristus]

10. Not enough courage to say either "Yes, I am" or "No, I'm not".

Cowardly creep...

[nocoincidences]

11. Dershowitz as

his defense lawyer--ah ah.

That dog won't hunt.

Starr either.

[louis-t]

12. Can't have it both ways, asshole.

[MaryMagdaline]

13. He wants back in the Hamptons

[icymist]

14. So Dershowitz is going to be their constitutional expert witness as a member of the legal team?

When McConnell has been yelling that there will be no witnesses, isn't this just a back door around that?

[onenote]

25. No, he's going to be their lawyer making their Constitutional legal argument.

[tinrobot]

15. Did I hear he's going to be a "witness?"

If he gets to be a witness, then I guess we can call witnesses.

Right?

[LuvLoogie]

16. No, no,no! He's not a witness!...

Alan will be Oracle for the Defense.

[lame54]

17. Meaning - He's keeping his underwear on

[Mr. Ected]

19. Bullshit until he provides his transcript for the "Hillary Clinton impeachment" of 2017

I can assure you, the presentation would have been a 180 degree turn from the idiocy he's about to blather.

[usaf-vet]

20. That is his way now. Distance himself from Trump, Epstein and underage children. Trifecta of denial?

[bucolic_frolic]

21. I don't think common ground will be found in this impeachment

It'll be a grand fight to election day

[iluvtennis]

22. All, I can say is wow.

[Warpy]

23. Dershowitz has found some abstract legal point he thinks needs to be proven

and that's why he's sticking his nose into it. It's the legal scholar's conceit showing, not some partisan vendetta to prove the Don is the savior of the nation. He's always been the rich felon's best friend, making sure that the rich felon isn't on trial for his money but often neglecting the protective effect wealth has against legal consequences.

I'm still having a little trouble thinking of him arguing for the unitary executive without oversight of any type beyond the EC every four years. That does seem inconsistent. However, at this point, that does seem to be what he is preparing to argue.

[onenote]

24. The version of this story at the link is different from what is quoted in the OP

In particular, the version of the story on the website does not contain the line "That would make the lawyer more of a witness for the Trump team than a member of the defense."

Why would the author of the article retract that statement? Maybe because it was a silly statement. A lawyer appearing before a tribunal arguing that the tribunal should reach a particular result on legal grounds isn't a witness - he or she is a lawyer.

[johndaly]

27. I am chagrined

by the audacity and duplicity of a man who claims to be a constitutional scholar, is a professor of law and claims to be a civil libertarian who can in good faith argue that the US Constitution does not provide for impeachment as a remedy for an abusive and corrupt executive. Impeachment is at the heart of the document.

"Impeachment is the subject of several provisions of the Constitution. Article I, § 2, cl. 5, gives to the House of Representatives “the sole power of impeachment.” Article I, § 3, cl. 6, gives to the Senate “the sole power to try all impeachments,” requires that Senators be under oath or affirmation when sitting for that purpose, stipulates that the Chief Justice of the United States is to preside when the President of the United States is tried, and provides for conviction on the vote of two-thirds of the members present. Article I, § 3, cl. 7, limits the judgment after impeachment to removal from office and disqualification from future federal office holding, but it allows criminal trial following conviction upon impeachment. Article II, § 2, cl. 1, deprives the President of the power to grant pardons or reprieves in cases of impeachment. Article III,§ 2, cl. 3, excepts impeachment cases from the jury trial requirement. Although the word “impeachment” is sometimes used to refer to the process by which any member of the House may “impeach” an officer of the United States under a question of constitutional privilege (see 3 HINDS ’ PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES §§ 2398 (impeachment of President John Tyler by a member) and 2469 (impeachment of Judge John Swayne by a member) (1907), the word as used in Article II, § 4 refers to impeachment by vote of the House, the consequence of which is that the Senate may then try the impeached officer."

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-4/impeachment

[capechacon]

28. The older Dershowitz gets....

the more unhinged he becomes. This guy lost it some years ago and it's become worse since then.

[MontanaMama]

30. Dershowitz should definitely keep

his undies on. 😳

[dlk]

31. Nice try (and fail) by Dershowitz

He is as dirty and skeevy as the rest of his compadres. Someone call a plumber. The sewer has backed up.

[Botany]

32. Come on Alan ... stay on the Trumptanic ... free ice in every room

[Midnightwalk]

33. Dershowitz is a full fledged tool

[C_U_L8R]

34. He's tying himself in knots on Ari's show right now

So transparently corrupt.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. Yup

(also Ari just mentioned Douche's book at the very end)

[JDC]

36. What a cluster F this crew is.

[Buckeyeblue]

37. How do you make a constitutional argument against something that is in the constitution?

One of Dershowitz's problems is that he loves himself too much.