Jan 26, 2020
Dershowitz says Democrats "completely failed" on impeachment
Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu.
Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Trump’s defense team, said on Fox News Sunday that the House impeachment managers failed to make a substantive case for removing the president from office.
Why it matters: Trump's team kept to a brief two hours on Saturday and stuck to conventional legal pushbacks.
What they're saying: "I think they presented the strongest case they could present on their facts, but they didn’t come close to alleging impeachable offenses," Dershowitz argued.
- "They completely failed to meet that high constitutional standard and, therefore, it would be unconstitutional to remove a president based on the allegations that were made against them in the articles of impeachment," he added.
Shot/chaser: Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Dershowitz over comments he made in the 1999 impeachment trial against Bill Clinton that argued a crime was not needed for impeachment.
- Dershowitz acknowledged the past remark but rebutted: "I’ve been immersing myself in dusty old books and I’ve concluded that, no, it has to be a crime."