Alan Dershowitz says House impeachment managers 'overplayed their hand' and went on too long in presenting their case - as he slams 140 scholars who argued that Trump's free speech defense is unethical

Daily Mail ^ | UPDATED: 15:19 EST, 12 February 2021 | KEITH GRIFFITH

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Attorney Alan Dershowitz has criticized the House impeachment managers for going on 'too long' in presenting their case against Donald Trump to the Senate, where he is charged with inciting the January 6 Capitol riot.

Dershowitz, who defended Trump in his first impeachment trial but is on the sidelines for the second, was reacting after House Democrats acting as prosecutors rested their case on Thursday. Trump's defense team will make their case on Friday.

'The Democrats overplayed their hand today, they went on too long, too repetitious, they should have rested yesterday,' Dershowitz told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday.

'I think the Republicans -- the lawyers [on Trump's defense team] -- will do a good job by making it neat and clean, and to the point and short,' he added.

Dershowitz predicted that Trump's attorney's would present two lines of defense: first, that the Senate does not have jurisdiction to convict a former president, and second, that Trump's remarks to a crowd during a speech before the riot were protected by the First Amendment.

He urged Trump's legal team to present a concise case and wrap up quickly, after defense attorney Bruce Castor delivered a disastrous soliloquy on Tuesday that even Trump's allies characterized as rambling and pointless.

Dershowitz, a civil libertarian and free speech advocate, also slammed 140 constitutional scholars who this week penned a letter demanding that Trump's attorneys not defend him on free speech grounds, arguing it 'would be legally frivolous.'

The letter carries an implicit threat, as the rules of professional responsibility prohibit an attorney from making frivolous arguments and carry disciplinary sanctions for those who do.

'I hope the defense attorneys for Trump don't listen and make that argument, and I've offered to defend them in front of any bar association,' Dershowitz said.

[Chgogal]

Parents need to find out where these “scholars” teach and make sure their child does not go there.

[Fury]

also slammed 140 constitutional scholars

That is so wrong.

It's 1,400,000 consitutional scholars.

[John Milner]

Come to think of it I had a mandatory U.S. Government course when a senior in High School. Pretty sure we did some learning about the Constitution.

Call me Constitutional Scholar #1,400,001.

[HotHunt]

Seems to me, without researching it beyond my memory, that Hillary Clinton was fired from the Watergate committee for preparing briefs trying to prevent Richard Nixon from having legal counsel to defend himself before the committee.

Of these 140 attorneys, I'd bet that there is not one Republican. They are all democRATS who hate Trump. They're not proffering a legal argument but a political opinion.

There is no democRAT you can trust in our country anymore.