Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz said Monday night that House Speaker is guilty of “abuse of power” if she continues to withhold the Articles of Impeachment from the Senate.
“You know what I say? This is obstruction of the Senate, the exact same charge that was made against the president. This is abuse of power from exactly same charge they made against the president. It is wrong constitutionally, and it is wrong morally, and it is wrong politically,” Dershowitz said on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
Pelosi began talking about withholding the impeachment articles from the Senate within minutes of the House voting to impeach President Donald Trump. (RELATED: Ted Cruz: Pelosi Sitting On Articles Of Impeachment ‘An Admission Of Failure’)
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has called Pelosi’s apparent strategy “incredibly dangerous” and “uncharted waters — Constitutionally.”
Dershowitz argued that Pelosi and House Democrats are continuing to play a political game with impeachment.
“The Democrats can’t have it both ways. They can’t sound the one hand, to the public we are saying he is impeached, but to this and that he has not impeached.
Noah Feldman, the lawyer who appeared as a Democratic witness before the impeachment hearing in the House Judiciary Committee has written in an op-ed that Trump is not truly impeached unless the Senate is engaged to begin a trial. But Dershowitz disagreed and said that is precisely why the Senate needs to afford the president a trial. (RELATED: House Democratic Whip Willing To Never Send Articles Of Impeachment To Senate)
Constitutional scholars Noah Feldman REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“There is nothing in the Constitution about Articles of Impeachment. There is nothing about forwarding. As far as the American public is concerned, the president is impeached. That is why it was utterly unfair to suggest we don’t have to allow the Senate now to acquit him.”
The Harvard professor said Pelosi has placed herself in a difficult political position. “If he hasn’t been impeached, Nancy Pelosi has to go to the media and say … he has not been impeached. He is presumed innocent.” But if the president has been impeached, Dershowitz suggested Pelosi has no choice but to let the Senate “start their trial as soon as they choose to. Remember, the Senate is the sole judge of innocence on impeachment.”
Fox News host Dan Bongino insisted “this was clearly a disastrous political decision.”