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Tags: dershowitz | no obstruction | exercising powers | article II | constitution

Dershowitz Argues 'You Cannot Question a President's Motives'

Dershowitz Argues 'You Cannot Question a President's Motives'
Alan Dershowitz (Michael Brochstein/Sipa via AP)

By    |   Sunday, 08 July 2018 01:00 PM EDT

President Donald Trump is constitutionally protected for the moves his critics are attacking him for politically, and "you cannot question a president's motives" for firing someone, civil liberties legal expert Alan Dershowitz said Sunday.

"A president cannot be charged for obstruction of justice for merely exercising his power under Article II" of the Constitution, Harvard Law professor emeritus Dershowitz told ABC "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. "You cannot question a president's motives when the president acts.

"If a president pardons, that's it. If a president fires, that's it. You can't go beyond the act and get into his motive or into his intent. . . .

"The pardon cannot be the actus reus of a crime, because you cannot have an actus reus of a crime that is a constitutionally protected act."

Dershowitz's latest legal book "The Case Against Impeaching Trump" comes out Monday.

In it, Dershowitz told Stephanopoulos, "I argue this, and think I prove it, conclusively."  

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Politics
President Donald Trump is constitutionally protected for the moves his critics are attacking him for politically, and "you cannot question a president's motives" for firing someone, civil liberties legal expert Alan Dershowitz said Sunday."A president cannot be charged for...
dershowitz, no obstruction, exercising powers, article II, constitution
158
2018-00-08
Sunday, 08 July 2018 01:00 PM
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