It would not have been an impeachable offense had President Donald Trump pushed for the Department of Justice to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but it still would have been a "terrible mistake," Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday.
"You don't want to weaponize the political differences," Dershowitz told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"It's not an impeachable offense, but it's the wrong thing to do. Neither side should be weaponizing – even the thing on Ivanka Trump's emails.
However, in the United States today, if someone does not like another person for political reasons, there is a call to "go after them, 'lock her up,' impeach. That's not the way to go," Dershowitz said. "If you don't like what people have done, run against them. Use political weapons. Do not use the criminal justice system."
The New York Times reported Tuesday that then-White House counsel Donald McGahn talked Trump out of ordering federal prosecutions against Clinton and Comey. Further, McGahn reportedly told Trump he could ask for an investigation, but that might have also brought accusations of abuse of power.
Dershowitz said it was good for McGahn to talk Trump out of the prosecutions, but he did not agree with the attorney's contention that going through with the probes would have been an impeachable offense.
"Look, the president has so many legal issues he is confronting on this issue now of the 9th Circuit where he is appealing, that's one of the hardest cases there is today," said Dershowitz, referring to the court's order putting a stay on Trump's call to ban asylum seekers.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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