Donald Trump impeachment charges invalid: OJ Simpson’s man Alan Dershowitz

Donald Trump’s lawyers have previewed their impeachment defence, asserting that the charges against him were invalid.

Adam Schiff and Jerrold Nadler walk the impeachment articles to the Senate. Picture: AP

Donald Trump’s lawyers have previewed their impeachment defence, asserting that the charges against him were invalid.

As both sides sharpened their arguments for the US President’s Senate trial, Democrats on Sunday (Monday AEDT) dismissed as “nonsense” the argument by Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard constitutional lawyer who acted as an adviser for the defence in ­­OJ Simpson’s murder trial.

Professor Dershowitz, a recent addition to Mr Trump’s legal team, argued that even if every charge sent by the House of Representatives to the Senate for the President’s trial were accepted as true, it would not rise to the level of ­impeachable behaviour.

“The (house) vote was to impeach on abuse of power, which is not within the constitutional criteria for impeachment, and ­obstruction of congress,” he told ABC TV in the US. “Criminal-like conduct is required.”

A politically motivated impeachment, he added, was the “greatest nightmare” of the country’s founders.

House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff dismissed the notion that abuse of power was not impeachable.

“That’s an argument you have to make if the facts are so dead set against you,” said the lead impeachment manager for Mr Trump’s Senate trial.

Another house impeachment manager, Jerrold Nadler, called Professor Dershowitz’s argument “arrant nonsense”.

The trial will be a “gruelling exercise”, Republican senator John Cornyn said.

Mr Trump’s impeachment trial proper starts on Wednesday (AEDT) in the Senate. The chamber will meet six hours a day for six days a week in only the third impeachment trial of a president in US history. Chief Justice John Roberts and all 100 senators were sworn in for the trial last Friday.

The house impeached Mr Trump on charges he abused his office by pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden by withholding military aid and dangling a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He was also charged with obstructing congress.

The two sides have been publicly fencing over whether the trial will be conducted quickly, perhaps in as little as two weeks — Mr Trump’s clear preference — or whether witnesses can be called and new evidence introduced, as Democrats insist is needed for a full and fair trial.

The President has said he would like the Senate to almost immediately dismiss the charges, but Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant, told Fox News: “That is not going to happen. We don’t have the votes for that.”

Mr Dershowitz said that calling witnesses would introduce major delays. “The trial will take a much longer time, because the Democrats will call (former national security adviser) John Bolton, and the President will invoke executive privilege and it will have to go to the courts,” he said.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has yet to announce the rules for the trial, but has said he is co-operating with the White House and wants it done quickly.

Senator Cornyn said he expected to see essentially the same rules as during the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton in 1998. That would have both sides lay out their arguments before a vote on whether to allow witnesses.

Mr Schiff accused US intelligence agencies of withholding documents from congress on Ukraine that could be significant to the trial. “They appear to be succumbing to pressure from the administration,” he said.

Mr Schiff contended that the National Security Agency “in particular is withholding what are potentially relevant documents to our oversight responsibilities on Ukraine, but also withholding documents potentially relevant that the senators might want to see during the trial. That is deeply concerning”. He also said “there are signs that the CIA may be on the same tragic course”.

Democrats have previously criticised the State Department for withholding documents to the impeachment inquiry.

AP, AFP