After appearing on ABC News on Sunday to argue that a president cannot be impeached for abuse of power, CNN dug up a 1998 video on Monday from Dershowitz that seemed to contradict his argument. The video is cued up at 5:22:
In the video Dershowitz says “It certainly doesn’t have to be a crime. If you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don’t need a technical crime.”
Dershowitz responded to the revelation of the 1998 video today, retracting his prior statement and pointing out that he was wrong then and was relying on academic consensus that there didn’t need to be a crime. He has since researched the topic more in-depth, as it relates heavily to the charges against Trump, and says he is right today that there does need to be a crime:
(1 of 3)To the extent there are inconsistencies between my current position and what I said 22 years ago, I am correct today. During the Clinton impeachment, the issue was not whether a technical crime was required, because he was charged with perjury.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 21, 2020
(2of 3
Therefore, I didn’t research the issue; I relied on the academic consensus that a crime was not required. In Trump impeachment, on the other hand, that is the critical issue, because abuse of power and obstruction of congress are neither crimes nor criminal- like behavior.— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 21, 2020
(3 of 3 cont) To the extent therefore that my 1998 off-the-cuff interview statement suggested the opposite, I retract it. Scholars learn to adapt and even change old views as they do more research.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 21, 2020