Who Is Alan Dershowitz? Trump Promotes Lawyer’s Book Discussing ‘Witch Hunt,’ Impeachment

Amid special counsel Robert Mueller taking a closer look at President Donald Trump’s tweets for signs of obstruction of justice and lawyer Michael Cohen spilling the beans on POTUS’ alleged knowledge about the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russians in Trump Tower, the president tried to divert renewed calls of his impeachment by pointing to a book written by lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

“@AlanDersh, a brilliant lawyer, who although a Liberal Democrat who probably didn’t vote for me, has discussed the Witch Hunt with great clarity and in a very positive way. He has written a new and very important book... called ‘The Case Against Impeaching Trump,’ which I would encourage all people with Trump Derangement Syndrome to read!” Trump tweeted on Thursday.

Dershowitz, who backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, made quite the 180 degree turn when it came to getting involved in politics. In the most recent times, he appeared on multiple national platforms, strongly advocating against any wrongdoing done by Trump.

To cite a few, he told Fox News he did not the support the dozen House Republicans who had filed resolution to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, because they were unwittingly laying the groundwork for Democrats to impeach Trump.

“The big issue will be, can you impeach a president or anyone else when you don't charge him with specific crimes, just because you disagree with what he’s done. And now, you have the Republicans making the case for the Democrats who want to impeach the president by offering bills of impeachment against Rod Rosenstein that don’t charge crimes,” he said.

Also, drawing from his own experience as a lawyer, Dershowitz said about the secret recordings made by Cohen: “It sounds like Cohen is not as loyal to the president as he once was... And Cohen should not have recorded a conversation. You know, you trust your lawyer to have a discreet conversation so that you can lay out all the possibilities and then decide what to do. The end result was that no payments were made, no cash was given, so this is a big deal about nothing."

Dershowitz — an over-achiever in his younger days, having graduated first in his class at the Yale Law School and becoming youngest scholar to become a full professor at Harvard Law at the age of just 28 — became known in his profession for representing some of the most controversial personalities, including former football star O.J. Simpson, who was charged with the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, Biography reported.

His high profile clientele also included names like heiress-turned-bank robber Patty Hearst, porn actor Harry Reems, businessman Claus Von Bulow, filmmakers Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, boxer Mike Tyson, and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Apart from his most recent book, which was mentioned in Trump’s tweet, Dershowitz has also written books like “The Best Defense” (1982), “Chutzpah” (1991), “The Advocate’s Devil” (1994), “Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000” (2001), “The Case for Israel” (2003) and “Taking a Stand: My Life in the Law” (2013).

Dershowitz has maintained it was “not a crime to collude with a foreign government” and hence Trump would only be at fault only if he colluded “because he was paid or extorted.” Also, if papers for impeachment were filed against the president, Supreme Court could intervene and reverse a vote to remove him from office, he told the Washington Examiner.