President Donald Trump did not commit any impeachable offenses, but the House violated the Constitution by voting that he did. And they are, ironically, immune from reprisals, according to constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz on Newsmax TV.
“We all hear that the president is not above the law, but Congress is not above the law, either. When Congress impeached the president earlier this week, they committed six independent violations of the Constitution,” Dershowitz told “Saturday Report.”
“They violated the free speech provision. They violated the impeachment criteria. They violated the bill of attainder. They violated due process, on and on and on.”
Ironically, lawmakers are protected from legal culpability from their congressional actions. So, unlike what they are doing to the president, they are immune from allegations against them.
“The only sanction is to vote them out of office and bring them to trial in the court of public opinion,” Dershowitz told host Carl Higbie. “Senators and congressmen are immune from lawsuits for what they do or say on the floor, so there can’t be any personal lawsuits.”
“And I wouldn’t favor recriminations.”
All House Democrats and 10 Republicans impeached the president for the second time this week for inciting the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, but the president’s pursuit of an Electoral College challenge is not grounds for impeachment, Dershowitz noted.
“How can you impeach a president for a speech that is constitutionally protected?” he asked.
Ultimately, impeachment should die in the Senate as it did the last time, according to Dershowitz, a member of the president’s first Senate impeachment trial team.
“The Constitution is very clear – the purpose of impeachment is removal,” he concluded. But the president would be out of office by the time a trial could be held. Dershowitz cited the precedent of President Richard Nixon’s resignation that ended an impeachment trial in the Senate.
“And the Senate cannot try an ordinary citizen,” Dershowitz added.
(Newsmax).
