Donald Trump’s legal team goes off the rails
If it is Sunday, it is time to meet Donald Trump’s legal team and legal wannabes with their nonsensical legal positions. This Sunday was no different.
On ABC’s This Week, Alan Dershowitz appeared. He first told George Stephanopoulos that a president cannot be charged with obstruction of justice for merely exercising his power under Article II. Stephanopoulos responded that you can go into the president’s mind. Dershowitz stated:
“You cannot question a president’s motives when the president acts. If a president pardons, that’s it. If a president fires, that’s it. You can’t go beyond an act and get into his motive or into his intent.”
He claims that all presidential moves are constitutionally protected acts, and that you cannot question the president. When Stephanopoulos said that would permit a president to cover up even murder, Dershowitz stated that the president’s power is absolute. Twitter quickly lit up with the true consensus that Dershowitz’s comments are baseless. Renato Mariotti, @renato_mariotti, for example, tweeted: “There is literally no legal support for this ridiculous assertion. Shows like @ThisWeekABC should not give Dershowitz a platform to make intellectually dishonest arguments.”
Laurence Tribe, @tribelaw, chimed in: “This is ludicrous. The Dershowitz claim has no basis in the Constitution’s text, structure, history, or purposes. Alan’s emphatic certitude is probably sincere but is groundless and deeply misleading. My book on impeachment with @JoshuaMatz8 shows why he’s wrong.”
Rudy Giuliani is back, as reported recently in The Palmer Report. He was on Meet the Press for more than ten minutes with Chuck Todd and repeated his assertion that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has nothing on the President and he is now recommending that Trump not sit down with Mueller to be interviewed, not because Trump has done anything wrong, but because the Mueller investigation is “corrupt.”
Giuliani also suggested the investigation has nothing, as they have debriefed every grand jury witness. While the action might not in and of itself amount to witness tampering, depending on what the witnesses are disclosing and what the conversations entail, there may be additional issued raised by such witness interactions.
This shameless behavior by the former prosecutor who aggressively went after the Mafia and other defendants is puzzling, but not surprising. Giuliani and the Trump administration are desperate. When asked about Russia and the meeting with Vladimir Putin coming up, Giuliani said Trump must meet with him.
Another Sunday of Trump’s legal team and in the case of Dershowitz, wannabe, and another week of positions and arguments that don’t hold water. In the meantime, Mueller continues to methodically work his case and time will tell where this goes.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.