Trump’s License to Steal

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FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | JANUARY 30, 2020freadshot

“We had a revolution to get rid of a king. The Senate Republicans are about to go on record to say that the Founders got that wrong.”

Donald Trump seemed to be the only person in the United States who believed, “I have the right to do whatever I want as President.”

Now, apparently, there are two.

Retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, a criminal defense lawyer defending Trump, has made arguments in the impeachment trial that are absurd and far removed from reality.

Dershowitz has argued that abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are not impeachable offenses and that only actual crimes or criminal conduct are impeachable.

Dershowitz is almost alone in this position which is close to universally rejected by constitutional scholars and experts. Harvard Law School professor and constitutional scholar Larry Tribe has written that “with virtually no federal criminal law in place when the Constitution was written in 1787, any such understanding would have been inconceivable.”

Dershowitz yesterday made an argument that is even more absurd. He took the position that if President Trump “does something that he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” 

This is a license to steal. Trump no doubt believes everything he does will help him get elected. Under the Dershowitz theory, Trump can engage in extortive quid pro quo efforts at will.

Ironically, in this case, the President apparently did engage in criminal conduct, violating the campaign finance laws by illegally soliciting something of value from a foreign country in connection with an election. A Trump lawyer claimed that seeking “mere information” is not a campaign finance violation, but Trump didn’t solicit “mere information,” he solicited a costly investigation which clearly is something of value.

We had a revolution to get rid of a king. The Senate Republicans are about to go on record to say that the Founders got that wrong.

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Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections. See previous Notes from Fred here.