Alan Dershowitz to join President Trump’s legal team in impeachment proceedings
Harvard legal professor to help defend embattled American leader alongside the White House's counsel
Famed Harvard legal professor Alan Dershowitz is to join Donald Trump’s legal team, defending the president in his upcoming impeachment proceedings.
Dershowitz, who said he would not be voting for Trump in the United States’ next election in November, is no stranger to representing controversial characters, his previous clients having included OJ Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein.
He joins an all-star legal team that includes White House counsel Jay Sekulow, a New York lawyer who advised Trump regarding the special investigation into his team’s links to Russia.
Trump is accused of withholding arms and aid to Ukraine in order to force it to investigate the work of Hunter Biden, the son of Trump’s political rival. He is also accused of obstructing the US Congress in its subsequent investigation.
Despite mounting evidence against him, however, Trump is highly unlikely to be removed from office, because at least two-thirds of US Senators would need to vote for his removal, and the Senate has a Republican majority.
Asked about his personal thought on Trump by the BBC, Dershowitz said: ““It’s a very, very different issue. I’m a Democrat, I intend to vote Democrat. I think that Democrats would be disappointed to see the president re-elected and Republicans would be pleased.”
He added: “It creates ambivalence in me as it does whenever I represent somebody whose acquittal would produce results that make me unhappy as an individual. But I would never, ever allow my own partisan views to impact my views on the constitution.
“I’m not going to allow my partisan views to impact my constitutional views and what I think is best for the long term survival of the constitution rather than the short-term partisan advantage of getting my person elected to be president.”
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