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    Defending the Constitution: Alan Dershowitz's Senate Argument Against Impeachment
    Defending the Constitution: Alan Dershowitz's Senate Argument Against Impeachment
    Defending the Constitution: Alan Dershowitz's Senate Argument Against Impeachment
    Ebook119 pages2 hours

    Defending the Constitution: Alan Dershowitz's Senate Argument Against Impeachment

    By Alan Dershowitz

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    “Maybe the question isn’t what happened to Alan Dershowitz. Maybe it’s what happened to everyone else.”—Politico

    In Defending the Constitution, Alan Dershowitz—New York Times bestselling author and one of America’s most respected legal scholars—makes an impassioned constitutional argument against the impeachment of President Donald Trump, just as he delivered it to the United States Senate.

    Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek. Yet he has come under intense criticism fire for applying those same principles, and his famed “shoe‑on‑the‑other‑foot test,” to Donald Trump, especially after arguing on the president’s behalf before the U.S. Senate as it deliberated impeachment.

    Defending the Constitution seeks to refocus the debate over impeachment to the same standard that Dershowitz has upheld for decades: the law of the United States of America, as established by the Constitution. Citing legal examples from a long lineage of distinguished judges and attorneys, and examining the impeachment language in the Constitution itself, Dershowitz proves—first to the U.S. Senate, and now to readers everywhere—that President Trump should not have been impeached, and certainly should not be removed, for causes that do not meet the standards laid out by the founding fathers.

    This book is Alan Dershowitz’s argument for a return to nonpartisan judgment based on the Constitution, for a preservation of the separation of powers and the checks and balances that make American government great. It is essential reading for anyone interested in or concerned about the impeachment of President Trump, and for everyone who cares about the future of U.S. government and society.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHot Books
    Release dateFeb 6, 2020
    ISBN9781510761810
    Defending the Constitution: Alan Dershowitz's Senate Argument Against Impeachment
    Author

    Alan Dershowitz

    Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School was described by Newsweek as “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights.” Italian newspaper Oggi called him “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” and The Forward named him “Israel’s single most visible defender—the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.” Dershowitz is the author of 30 non-fiction works and two novels. More than a million of his books have been sold worldwide, in more than a dozen different languages. His recent titles include the bestseller The Case For Israel, Rights From Wrong, The Case For Peace, The Case For Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza, and his autobiography, Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law.

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      Book preview

      Defending the Constitution - Alan Dershowitz

      Also by Alan Dershowitz

      Guilt by Accusation: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo

      Defending Israel: The Story of My Relationship with My Most Challenging Client

      The Case Against the Democratic House Impeaching Trump

      The Mueller Report (with an Introduction by Alan Dershowitz)

      The Case Against Impeaching Trump

      The Case Against BDS: Why Singling Out Israel for Boycott Is Anti-Semitic and Anti-Peace

      Trumped Up: How Criminalization of Political Differences Endangers Democracy

      Electile Dysfunction: A Guide for Unaroused Voters

      The Case Against the Iran Deal

      Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel’s Just War Against Hamas

      Abraham: The World’s First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer

      Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law

      The Trials of Zion

      The Case for Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza

      The Case Against Israel’s Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace

      Is There a Right to Remain Silent? Coercive Interrogation and the Fifth Amendment After 9/11

      Finding Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery and the First Amendment in the Age of Terrorism

      Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence

      Pre-emption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways

      What Israel Meant to Me: By 80 Prominent Writers, Performers, Scholars, Politicians and Journalists

      Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights

      America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation

      The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can Be Resolved

      The Case for Israel

      America Declares Independence

      Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge

      Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age

      Letters to a Young Lawyer

      Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000

      Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law

      Just Revenge

      Sexual McCarthyism: Clinton, Starr, and the Emerging Constitutional Crisis

      The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century

      Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case

      The Abuse Excuse: And Other Cop-Outs, Stories and Evasions of Responsibility

      The Advocate’s Devil

      Contrary to Popular Opinion

      Chutzpah

      Taking Liberties: A Decade of Hard Cases, Bad Laws, and Bum Raps

      Reversal of Fortune: Inside the Von Bülow Case

      The Best Defense

      Criminal Law: Theory and Process (with Joseph Goldstein and Richard Schwartz)

      Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry, and Law (with Joseph Goldstein and Jay Katz)

      Copyright © 2020 by Alan Dershowitz

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

      Hot Books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.

      Hot Books® and Skyhorse Publishing® are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

      Visit our website at www.hotbookspress.com.

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

      ISBN: 978-1-5107-6180-3

      eBook: 978-1-5107-6181-0

      Cover design by Brian Peterson

      Printed in the United States of America

      To my wonderful wife Carolyn, whom I love dearly, and who has supported and loved me despite disagreeing with some of my positions and enduring some of the repercussions.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Introduction: President Trump Asks Me to Join His Impeachment Legal Team

      Defending the Constitution: My Senate Argument Against Impeachment

      U.S. Senate Question and Answer Transcript

      Op-ed, The Hill, January 30th, 2020: Dershowitz: I Never Said President Could Do Anything to Get Reelected

      Epilogue: The Dershowitz Doctrine: The Danger of Demonization by Distortion

      Appendix: The Constitution of the United States

      Acknowledgments

      INTRODUCTION: PRESIDENT TRUMP ASKS ME TO JOIN HIS IMPEACHMENT LEGAL TEAM

      In the weeks leading up to the impeachment vote in the House of Representatives—a partisan vote whose outcome was predetermined by the large Democratic majority—members of the president’s legal team reached out to me inquiring whether I would be willing to join them in arguing against his removal by the Senate. As a liberal Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton, I felt somewhat conflicted emotionally. I was also feeling pushback from family members, especially my wife, Carolyn, who wanted me to maintain my independence and nonpartisan neutrality. I told the president’s lawyers that I would not join the legal team as a full-fledged member involved in tactical, strategic, or factual issues, but I would consider playing a limited role as a constitutional advocate—a role I’ve played in other cases. I would be defending the constitution and the presidency, rather than any particular individual. As one lawyer of President Andrew Johnson put it at his Senate removal trial: I came to the defense table not as a partisan or sympathizer but to defend the Constitution. Or as another put it: A greater principle is at stake than the fate of any particular individual.

      I decided that if I were to agree to accept the limited role of presenting a constitutional argument against the removal of President Trump, I would begin by quoting these distinguished 19th-century lawyers.

      My wife pointed out—quite correctly—that no matter how limited my role might be, I would be seen as an advocate for President Trump, thus compromising my neutrality, rather than for the Constitution. I knew she was probably right, so I did not immediately agree to play any role in the Senate trial.

      While my wife and I were considering the options, we were invited to join a friend and his family for Christmas Eve dinner. We were originally going to have dinner in Miami Beach—where we spend the winter—on the day after Christmas, but we had to change our plans and go to New York for a funeral right after the holiday, so we moved our dinner up. His family had planned their event at the Mar-a-Lago Hotel in Palm Beach—where they were long-time members—so we drove up there to join them. We sat at a far corner of the massive dining room and were finishing our appetizers when President Trump and his family entered the other side of the room, a considerable distance away. When we accepted the dinner invitation at Mar-a-Lago, we knew there was a possibility the president would be there, but we did not expect to meet him in such a large room with so many people. But, as fate would have it, when I got in the buffet line for the main course, he got behind me. I was surprised that the president was on the line instead of being served at his table. We said hello and I politely offered him my empty plate, which he politely declined. Then he said, So, are you going to be my lawyer in the Senate. Everyone wants the job, but you’re my first choice. I told him that I was considering it, but that my wife was opposed to me doing it, and he replied, Bring her over and let me talk to her.

      I went back across the large hall and found Carolyn eating her main course at our table. The President wants to talk to you.

      About that? she replied.

      Yes, about that.

      Carolyn and I walked across the room and approached the president at his table, where he was finishing his meal. I told him we would wait until he finished, but he got up and started talking to Carolyn. He asked her why she was reluctant to have me become his lawyer. She told him that she wanted me to maintain my independence and neutrality. He said that he thought she had a good point, but that

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