Posted on 12/04/2017 9:40:14 AM PST by Signalman
President Trump was pleased with constitutional law scholar Alan Dershowitz’s defense of him over his firing of former FBI Director James Comey, calling the Harvard Law professor’s analysis on Fox News a “must watch” interview.
“A must watch: Legal Scholar Alan Dershowitz was just on @foxandfriendstalking of what is going on with respect to the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. political history. Enjoy!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat, said Trump has the constitutional right as president to fire his FBI director.
“You cannot charge a president with obstruction of justice for exercising his constitutional power to fire Comey and his constitutional authority to tell the Justice Department who to investigate, who not to investigate,” Dershowitz said during an interview with Fox News.
“We have precedents that clearly establish that.”
Talk of the president obstructing justice resurfaced after his former national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI last week about his conversation with the Russian ambassador.
Trump didn’t help matters by tweeting over the weekend that he knew Flynn lied to the FBI.
“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies,” Trump wrote. “It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said over the weekend that a Senate investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election has revealed possible obstruction.
"I see it in the hyper-frenetic attitude of the White House, the comments every day, the continual tweets. And I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of Director Comey, and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to ‘lift the cloud’ of the Russia investigation. That’s obstruction of justice,” Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
But Dershowitz disagreed.
"If Congress were ever to charge him with obstruction of justice for exercising his constitutional authority under Article II, we'd have a constitutional crisis," he said.
The famed attorney explained “clearly illegal acts” on the president’s part would need to be proven.
"There's never been a case in history where a president has been charged with obstruction of justice for merely exercising his constitutional authority. That would cause a constitutional crisis in the United States," Dershowitz said, hoping Special Counsel Robert Mueller understands that.
"And Sen. Feinstein simply doesn't know what she's talking about when she says it's obstruction of justice to do what a president is completely authorized to do under the Constitution."
“The Democrats are putting out this impeachment nonsense to fire up their base for the 2018 election.”
Bingo. It doesn’t really matter (to the dems) if Trump had the right to fire Comey. If Russian collusion is a bust, they will simply make “obstruction!” the mantra, and if they gain majorities in the house and senate, they will push for impeachment - flimsy charge(s) or no.
And the MSM will back them up - bringing in all sorts of experts who will spout such nonsense as “firing Comey gives the appearance of impropriety, blah, blah, blah...”.
Such is the left’s hatred of DJT.
How come this man did a complete 180 in life? I mean, it’s wonderful to have a brilliant lawyer tell it like it is, but I’m just shocked at who he has become.
I have noticed him agreeing with us on other things lately. As you say the dims left him - they don’t care as long as they get what they want or he has become quite rational in his old age.
It’s amazing to see the depths the democrats have sunken to and only because they lost with a crappy candidate. If they were smart they would be working to win the next election, not trying to overturn the last one.
It wouldn't be the first time (or second, or third, ad nauseum) that Sen. Feinstein simply didn't know what she was talking about...
Has Sen. Feinstein simply fallen into the trap of believing her own frequent lies, or does she just lie naturally even if a lie is not needed (much like Obama and other Obamunists do)?
(Ha ha - rhetorical question only - of course Sen. Feinstein knowingly lies - after all, she's a Communist, um, I mean, she's a Democrat - as if there is any difference anymore - the Democrats could never get their ugly agendas enacted into law or government policy if they didn't lie.)
There’s another lawyer who I believe is a Democrat that I really like. Jonathon Turley of George Washington University is really good and speaks strictly legally, and not as a Democratic hack.
I would love to see Dershowitz as Trump’s attorney but he probably doesn’t take private clients any longer. It took him a long time to get to the “sane, logical and common sense” segment of the population but who cares - he’s there now!
I agree. Turley’s a good guy. On the lib side but he speaks like a fair man.
Where has that been established as fact?
AND Doug Schoen....
Alan Dershowitz was on the Lolita express 6 times, I think. He is currying favor. Grant him immunity and maybe he will rat out the Clintons?
How come this man did a complete 180 in life? I mean, it’s wonderful to have a brilliant lawyer tell it like it is, but I’m just shocked at who he has become.
I’m not sure Dershowitz has changed, as such. I might disagree with him on many things, but I’ll always admire someone who sticks to his beliefs and who actually has beliefs. This is in contrast to someone like McConnell who is the classic weathervane politician who says whatever fits the moment. You wonder with someone like that if they believe in anything other than self-preservation.
“”Turley’s a good guy. On the lib side but he speaks like a fair man.””
He’s often confused with Toobin who is the lib...Turley makes sense - Toobin never does!
Did you ever see the photos Turley took on a trip to the South Pacific islands last year..he sent out a series of them and they were superb...
So TRUE!!!
You’ve nailed.1 2 3.
You simply made that up. The fact is, the president’s pardon power has NO constitutional limits except he cannot pardon someone who was impeached.
Couldn't pardon himself.
Had to wait for Ford to do it. As part of the agreement, Nixon would resign.
All kinds of info about it on the web.
Trump is basically going to have to run on that exact premise next year....this could get ugly, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
actually...people were very very worried that Nixon was going to do just that and stay in office...Barry Goldwater called Ben Bradlee at the Washington Post and pleaded with him to “quit hammering him in the paper, he’ll go but you guys gotta cool it”....over the next few days, Goldwater etc convinced Nixon to resign.
It’s not that Nixon couldn’t. He just didn’t. Someone may have told him that he couldn’t, but I don’t think that’s ever been established as law.
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