Attorney and professor Alan Dershowitz confirmed he is being considered as an addition to President Trump’s impeachment legal team, although he cannot comment whether or not he has agreed to join.
But Dershowitz can say for sure that he believes Trump has not committed an impeachable offense. In a historic vote, the House of Representatives has approved two articles of impeachment against Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
“I think that both of the articles of impeachment violate the Constitution,” he says.
Dershowitz says the basis for Trump’s impeachment does not meet the criteria the founders set in place for removing officials from office.
“I'm not opposed to impeachment, but I strongly oppose impeachment on grounds like obstruction of Congress or abuse of power,” he says. “Those are not in the Constitution, and the framers would never have accepted that in the Constitution.”
Just days before the airstrike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Trump was spotted in a buffet line at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, chatting with Dershowitz.
He says the two “exchanged holiday greetings and our families met.”
Trump did not bring up his future plans to assassinate Soleimani, he says, adding he believes the president’s actions against the top Iranian commander were legal.
“In this case, it was clearly legal under both international law and American constitutional law,” he says. “And the question of whether it's good policy, only time will tell.”