President Trump’s 'No crimes!' defense is not a good case against impeachment, writes jonathanchait
Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images “They’re impeaching me, and there are no crimes. This has to be a first in history,” declared President Trump at a rally this week. The point he appears to be echoing has been advanced in slightly more detailed way by Alan Dershowitz, who may formally join Trump’s team of illustrious legal minds and has laid out his case in op-eds.
Impeachment is definitely not “unconstitutional.” It’s right there in the Constitution. Whether it’s warranted, and whether Trump’s actions constitute high crimes grave enough to warrant removal, is a matter for debate. Dershowitz tellingly can’t even bother to mount a defense on those grounds. The Mueller report describes a list of acts that would have constituted obstruction of justice — another crime — except that Robert Mueller decided he couldn’t charge the president with a crime or even come out and say Trump’s actions would have been called a crime if he weren’t president.
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