Trump Impeachment: Democrat Reveals Why 'Trial Should Result In Acquittal'

Noted U.S. constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz insists president Donald Trump can't be convicted and removed from office despite legal evidence for impeachment presented by Democrats. His reason: the twin impeachment charges against Trump don't rise to the level of impeachable offenses under the Constitution.

Dershowitz, who published a book, "The Case Against Impeaching Trump" in 2018, admits to being a liberal Democrat that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Dershowitz explained his constitutional argument in an ABC TV interview with George Stephanopolous Sunday evening. He also asserted he isn't officially part of Trump's "Made for TV" legal defense team and is only there to offer his legal expertise on constitutional questions. In a radio interview Friday, Dershowitz denied he was a “member of the Trump legal team,” saying his role in the team will be to speak on behalf of the U.S. Constitution.

"I have a limited role in the case. I'm only in the case as a counsel on the constitutional criteria for impeachment."

Dershowitz insists Trump shouldn't be impeached, even if the House proves its case for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress during the Senate trial.

"If the allegations are not impeachable, then this trial should result in an acquittal, regardless of whether the conduct is regarded as OK by you or by me or by voters," he pointed out. "That's an issue for the voters."

His constitutional case against impeachment is based on an argument successfully used in president Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial in March 1868. Dershowitz cited 19th century American jurist Justice Benjamin Curtis for this constitutional viewpoint.

"When you read the text of the Constitution, treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, 'other' really means that crimes and misdemeanors must be akin -- akin to treason and bribery," he told Stephanopoulos. That's why the House's charges won't stick.

Dershowitz said the Constitution doesn't say anything about the need to have witnesses in an impeachment trial. He said if witnesses are allowed, it could cause delays in the final judgment.

"The one thing that's very clear is that if witnesses are permitted on one side, they have to be permitted on both sides," he noted. "And if witnesses are permitted, it will delay the trial considerably, because the president will invoke executive privilege as to people like (former national security adviser) John Bolton that will have to go to the court and we'll have to have a resolution of that before the trial continues."

Dershowitz revealed he hasn't endorsed and signed the seven page formal declaration the president's defense team submitted to the Senate on Saturday. He also said he won't vote for Trump in November. Astonishingly, he told BBC in an interview that Trump’s acquittal by the Senate “would produce results that make me unhappy as an individual."

As for Trump’s impeachment, Dershowitz said 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.”