WASHINGTON — When Alan M. Dershowitz informed President Trump this week that he would be part of the authorized staff for his impeachment trial wit
WASHINGTON — When Alan M. Dershowitz informed President Trump this week that he would be part of the authorized staff for his impeachment trial within the Senate, his transformation from a onetime liberal standard-bearer right into a conservative provocateur gave the impression to be full.
Mr. Dershowitz, 81, a professor emeritus at Harvard Legislation Faculty, prides himself on being a civil libertarian and a contrarian who isn’t afraid to defend the seemingly indefensible, particularly if that individual has a high-profile, tabloid-friendly title. His previous shoppers embody Claus von Bülow, O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson and Jeffrey Epstein, the rich financier who was accused of intercourse trafficking and killed himself final 12 months in a Manhattan jail.
Earlier in his profession, Mr. Dershowitz was often known as an advocate for the First Modification who defended neo-Nazi speech and pornography and served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union. Again then, according to The New Yorker, he additionally labored professional bono to signify shoppers concerned in challenges to censorship and the demise penalty.
Mr. Dershowitz’s connections to Mr. Epstein, nonetheless, have proved essentially the most complicating in recent times. In 2014, one among Mr. Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, mentioned in a court docket submitting that Mr. Dershowitz was one of many Epstein buddies to whom she was provided for intercourse.
Mr. Dershowitz has vociferously denied the allegations. On Fox Information, he famous that he had a “good, good intercourse life in the course of the related time period.” The accusations even impressed him to jot down a e book, “Guilt by Accusation: The Problem of Proving Innocence within the Age of #MeToo.”
Since Mr. Trump took workplace, Mr. Dershowitz has continuously visited the West Wing, consulting with the president and his high aides on numerous points, together with the Center East and the Mueller inquiry.
Mr. Dershowitz, who lives in New York, summers on Martha’s Winery, and says his household of Democrats is deeply disturbed by his affiliation with Mr. Trump, has recognized the president as an off-the-cuff acquaintance because the 1990s.
However Mr. Trump took a better curiosity in him after his common Fox Information appearances, throughout which Mr. Dershowitz typically attacked the authorized grounds for the particular counsel’s investigation into Russian interference within the 2016 election and defended the president’s proper to fireplace James B. Comey because the F.BI. director.
Regardless of Mr. Trump’s frequent tweets praising him, Mr. Dershowitz has all the time maintained to reporters that he had no real interest in formally becoming a member of Mr. Trump’s authorized staff. In a quick interview on Friday, Mr. Dershowitz mentioned that had not modified and tried to minimize his function.
“I’m presenting an impartial argument as an impartial tutorial towards impeachment, which is a view I’ve held for a very long time,” he mentioned.
Mr. Dershowitz is anticipated to current oral arguments within the Senate trial subsequent week and he insisted that these arguments could be the extent of his involvement within the trial.
“I felt it was necessary for the Structure and for precedent and the way forward for the impeachment,” he mentioned.
His closing dialog about becoming a member of the staff occurred on Wednesday night time with Mr. Trump himself. “We mentioned it and I agreed,” Mr. Dershowitz mentioned.