This week Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Trump’s legal team for the Senate impeachment trial, declared that “if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."
I was astonished by this statement, even though it was made by the likes of Dershowitz, a celebrity lawyer known for representing people like Claus von Bülow, Mike Tyson, and Jim Bakker. Dershowitz is the guy who got a sweetheart plea deal for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who preyed upon girls as young as 14.
Dershowitz was saying that anything Trump does should be interpreted as for the public interest, which would make it legal. So even though there was clearly a quid pro quo in which Trump withheld U.S. aid to extort a foreign government to conduct a sham investigation of his domestic political rival, that is ok. Why? Because, Dershowitz proclaims, Trump believes that his re-election, at any cost, is in the “public interest.” This sounds very much like the old belief in the divine right of kings that said monarchs cannot be held accountable for their actions by any “earthy authority.”
Dershowitz is a Yale educated lawyer, and he knows very well that his assertion is utter nonsense.
As the impeachment trial in the Senate went on, White House lawyer Eric Herschmann doubled down on Dershowitz’ absurd proposition. Herschmann delivered a melodramatic plea, declaring that Trump’s “accomplishments” as president, such as trying to build additional sections of walls along the southern border, show that *all* of his actions are in the public interest. Herschmann then begged for an end to investigations into the numerous instances of abuse of power that Trump has engaged in. Finally, he urged an immediate end to the impeachment trial itself, saying, “Let’s try something different now. Join us. One nation. One people.”
Herschmann is a well-educated man. It’s likely he knows that one of the Nazis' favorite political slogans was "One People, One Empire, One Leader" (“Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer”).
During the process of this trial, it has become obvious that this is nothing more than a show trial, a way for the GOP to show their allegiance to Trump. They’re signalling that they’ll go along with the idea that Trump has the rights of a king, that he is the chosen one, an imperfect vessel chosen by God to carry out His will.
And indeed, for the last 11 days, Republican Senators have given interviews and made declarations on Twitter to this very effect. The impeachment trial has provided them the public opportunity to agree with Trump’s statement last summer that “'I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president” (nevermind Articles 1 and 3, the foundations for the powers of the legislative and judiciary branches, and checks and balances on executive power).
So now here we are, on what might be the last day of this show trial, with no witnesses, and with “jurors” who declared before the trial that they had already decided to acquit the defendant.
This spectacle has cleared the way for Trump to carry out all the plans he has for this nation. Every terrifying last one of them. Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.
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