I don't think it matters what Trump believed. What is important is what was objectively true. In this case it was objectively true that an investigation might show that the Bidens were corrupt.
Also, it is not only the Biden's possible corruption that needed to be investigated. Ukraine's possible corruption needed to be investigated. This point is not discussed enough. When Ukraine acquiesced to Joe Biden't threat to withhold aid unless the prosecutor was fired, was that acquiescence corrupt? For example, was there an additional payoff received by some Ukrainian official or other person in exchange for that acquiescence? Has anybody investigated that possibility? Did Ukraine agree to remain silent about Biden's threat and Ukraine's acquiescence? Did Ukraine put out a false story about the threat and the acquiescence? You can probably think of many more possible instances of Ukrainian corruption with regard to Ukraine's acquiescence to Joe Biden's threat.
The American Government had an objectively verifiable interest in finding out whether Ukraine was corrupt in these circumstance. There was an objectively verifiable justification for Trump to request that the Ukrainians conduct such an investigation of themselves.
I don’t think it matters what Trump believed.
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Exactly! The Left is obsessed with “thought crime” that they label everything as “hate crime”.
They don’t look at facts, they make inferences about the motive of any and all acts.
Has anyone asked the House managers if their actions in pursuing the impeachment, are being done for their own political benefit.
“I don’t think it matters what Trump believed. What is important is what was objectively true. In this case it was objectively true that an investigation might show that the Bidens were corrupt.”
You are right that what Trump believed is not admissible to the case, because it is unprovable and unknowable.
But it does “matter” to the point Dershowitz’s was making - namely, that in order to prove the President was not acting in the national interest, the burden of proof would be on the House Managers to prove President Trump did NOT believe the Bidens were corrupt. And since that is impossible to prove, they have no case.
Dershowitz was going a little farther into the hypothetical - arguing that even if it could NOT be proven objectively that an investigation might show that the Bidens were corrupt, or even if it could be proven objectively that the Bidens were not corrupt, the president’s motives still may have been in the national interest, if he believed the Bidens may be corrupt.
Believe it or not, I think you, I and Dershowitz basically agree. He was just taking the hypothetical to another level to show just how absurd it is to try and impeach a President for having a motive that you can’t prove.