Posted on 01/09/2021 1:42:42 PM PST by blam
Impeaching President Donald Trump in the final days of his presidency would violate the Constitution, according to legal expert Alan Dershowitz on Newsmax.
Democrats are planning to impeach Trump, who addressed a rally of supporters in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday. Later that day, demonstrators protesting the election results attacked the Capitol.
"It's unconstitutional," Dershowitz told host Carl Higbie on "Saturday Report." "I mean, you cannot impeach a president unless he's committed high crimes and misdemeanors and these don't constitute high crimes and misdemeanors, they constitute Constitutionally protected speech.
"You can condemn, you can attack, you can refuse to vote for, you can do all of those things which are politically available to you, but the one thing you can't do is use the law, which is impeachment, on something which is protected by the First Amendment."
In saying the Capitol rioters should be prosecuted for the violence, Dershowitz added the president cannot be blamed for their actions.
"[Impeaching the president] would do more enduring harm to our Constitution than even the horrible rioters did, although they are strongly to be condemned and I’m very glad they're being prosecuted to the hilt," Dershowitz said. "It’s part of the core theory of the First Amendment that you prosecute the actors, you don’t prosecute the speaker.
"The speaker has a Constitutional right to advocate … advocate, not incite … advocate, which is what president Trump did. So, going after the actors, rather than the speaker is the way our Constitution laid it out."
Dershowitz, who has said he would be willing to defend the president should Trump be impeached, expressed long-term effects if the Democrats proceed with their plans.
"The implications for the First Amendment, the implications for the Constitution are grave they go beyond this week, they are forever," he said.
(snip>
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Sure it’s unconstitutional, but virtually everything the left does is unconstitutional.
LOL at the Democrats caring about the Constitution. So, some federal judge or the SCOTUS would rule in Trump’s favor? They would probably say he lacks standing to contest his own impeachment. Heck, Hillary Clinton herself wrote a memo supporting the idea that Nixon shouldn’t be allowed counsel. I don’t think anyone will enforce the law, even if the professor is right. Time is the only thing that will stop them from impeaching him again.
I want to know what Pelosi is so afraid of.
Democommies and their evil twins the gopE are a threat to the Constitution.
Alan! You ignorant twit. What Constitution? That piece of paper is nothing more than recommendations now to those in charge. You should have opened your yap when the election was stolen!!!
“Time is the only thing that will stop them from impeaching him again.”
No, they’ll still impeach him after he is out of office, because they want to utterly ruin and destroy him, and prohibit him from ever holding office again; they mean to humiliate him and his family, and erase him from memory. Believe me, they are going to remove his portrait from the Hall of Presidents. The Democrats are Stalinists.
The Dems decided long ago that the Constitution itself is Unconstitutional. Try to make sense of that, and figure out where their authority comes from. If not the Constitution it can only be by coercion and force, like all tyrants.
Apparently massive voter fraud is nothing but a mere blip on his constitutional radar.
“I want to know what Pelosi is so afraid of.”
Apparently, their plan, if it works, will prevent Trump from running again in 24. That is why it’s so important to them.
I'm sure Alan knows they wont to trash the Constitution on purpose. They want it to be a joke.
A crisis is not to be wasted.
Dirty Trump up at worst, make it impossible for him to run again if possible.
The lesson we all should be learning is, this is what it looks like when you play politics to win.
I have friends all over the world.
Not that at matters, but their thoughts on Trump ranged from really liking Trump, to him being an amusement but ineffective to him being a nuisance unable to do anything. Interestingly, none thought he was bent on “dictatorship” and they understood what he was about — only foolish American leftist believe that.
But now - regardless of their previous thoughts everyone I know above ALL believe, this was a deep state coup. Like us, now they grieve America has become just become another 3rd world country. The world is back to “law of the jungle.”
“A crisis is not to be wasted”
Exactly..... now flip it back around on them as we are now in a constitutional crisis. Additionally, we’ve been in a national emergency since 2018.
Release the Insurrection Act.
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