Dershowitz' Defense of Trump

Alan Dershowitz is right that in this country every person , however vile, corrupt or criminal, is entitled to a defense. It is also true that lawyers have a professional and ethical obligation to represent an accused however unpopular or guilty. Nevertheless, an attorney may not knowingly elicit false testimony and has a responsibility to inform the court when a client has committed perjury. An attorney may not conspire with nor assist a client to commit a crime.

The duty to defend a criminally accused client does not extend to enabling that client to continue to hold the office of president of the United States. Mr. Dershowitz, who has inexplicably altered his past assessment of what constitutes an impeachable offense, has lost sight of the gulf between his professed defense of the Constitution and his constitutionally unsound excuses for Donald Trump's abuse of power. By arguing against the impeachment of this president, Mr. Dershowitz is not fulfilling some higher duty. Instead, he is aiding a fraud on the Senate and the American people and enabling Mr. Trump's continuing destruction of the rule of law. Indeed, he is putting at risk the civil liberties he claims to hold dear.