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Dershowitz defends Trump, says every campaign violates campaign finance law

Fox News

Fox News contributor Alan Dershowitz defended President Trump against threats of impeachment from Democrats on Wednesday, arguing that campaign finance law violations do not rise to the standard of impeachable offenses.

In an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Dershowitz stated that an excessive or undisclosed campaign donation would not be enough for Democrats to rationalize impeaching the president if the claims made by Cohen in court filings Tuesday are true.

{mosads}”You can’t impeach on the basis of minor derelictions or even crimes,” the Harvard law professor said. “You need a high crime and misdemeanor, and you know every campaign has violated some technical election law.”

“Yeah, I think there are going to be some Democrats … who will run on ‘give us the House, we’ll impeach the president,'” Dershowitz continued. “I think impeachment will be an issue, but I think the law on impeachment, at least according to my research, is fairly clear.”

Calls for Trump’s impeachment escalated on Tuesday after Trump’s longtime former attorney, Michael Cohen, plead guilty to tax and bank fraud and a campaign finance violation while writing in court filings that Trump directed him to make payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, two women accusing Trump of past affairs, weeks before the election to prevent their claims from coming to public light.

Conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote that Cohen’s guilty plea “changes” his past skepticism of Democrats’ calls for impeachment, which have so far failed to gain support from party leadership.

“I’ve been skeptical about the wisdom and merit of impeachment,” Stephens tweeted. “Cohen’s guilty plea changes that. The president is clearly guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. He should resign his office or be impeached and removed from office.”

Cohen’s guilty plea came the same day as eight guilty verdicts were handed down against Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, by a Virginia jury.

Dershowitz, who says he is a Democrat, has authored a book making the case against impeaching Trump and frequently defends the president in cable news appearances amid the ongoing special counsel investigation.

Tags Donald Trump House Impeachment Paul Manafort Special counsel

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