Alan Dershowitz: Who is the controversial lawyer defending Donald Trump against impeachment?
Donald Trump has named the team of legal minds who will defend him in his upcoming historic Senate impeachment trial.
One of the names causing a stir is defence attorney Alan Dershowitz. The Harvard University law professor has worked on some of the world’s most famous – and contentious – legal cases, and is now offering his services to one of the most polarising presidents in United States history.
The successful attorney is expected to focus on the constitutional arguments against the the charges made against the president by Democrats, which include accusations that he abused his power and obstructed Congress during its investigation.
The team’s statement, which Mr Dershowitz shared on his Twitter account, said: “While Professor Dershowitz is nonpartisan when it comes to the Constitution – he opposed the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and voted for Hillary Clinton – he believes the issues at stake go to the heart of our enduring Constitution.”
Mr Dershowitz is joined by several other high profile attorneys, including former independent counsel Ken Starr and former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi. The trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
Who has he previously defended and why is he so controversial?
Mr Dershowitz’s most notable cases read like a who’s-who of controversial men.
His first major legal victory came in 1976, when he successfully appealed the conviction of Harry Reems on charges of distributing obscenity for his pornographic movie Deep Throat. Then, in 1984, Mr Dershowitz had his second major victory with the case of Claus von Bülow, the British socialite who had been convicted of attempting to murder his wife, Sunny (who went into a coma in 1980, and died in 2008).
In 1995 he joined the highest profile case of his career up until now, and worked as an adviser to OJ Simpson‘s defence team, going on to write a book about the case.
Since then, he also defended the late Jeffrey Epstein in 2008 after the American financier was accused of soliciting sex from minors. Mr Dershowitz helped come to a “non-prosecution agreement”, which led to Epstein serving 13 months in jail. The convicted paedophile died in prison last year. And, in 2018, Mr Dershowitz worked as an adviser on disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein‘s case, which is currently in trial.
He has been accused of some bad things as well
Two women claim they were directed to have sex with Mr Dershowitz during the time he was associated with Epstein. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most vocal victims, stated in a 2014 court filing that Epstein lent her out for sex to his friends including Mr Dershowitz.
The lawyer has denied all the allegations against him.
He seems to enjoy the controversy of defending controversial figures
In 2018, Mr Dershowitz said that the reaction he received to an op-ed he had written questioning the legitimacy of the special counsel investigation into Mr Trump's 2016 campaign, had proven that defending the president in the public eye was more difficult than defending OJ Simpson.
When asked about his penchant for defending unpopular figures, and whether Mr Trump's case is more difficult, he told the New York Times that it is the more difficult than any of his highest profile cases: “Of course. Or Claus von Bülow or Leona Helmsley or Michael Milken or Mike Tyson. This is much worse than all that."
He continued: “In those cases people were critical of me, but they were prepared to discuss it. They were prepared to have a dialogue. Here, the people that I’m objecting to want to stop the dialogue. They don’t want to have the conversation.”
Laurence Tribe, a longtime colleague of Mr Dershowitz's at Harvard, told the New Yorker that his colleague enjoys those types of challenges: “He revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible.”
He has moulded his career around the defence of civil liberties — but has come to criticise the ACLU
Form his first major case — defending the pornographic film Deep Throat on First Amendment grounds — Mr Dershowitz has focused on civil liberties, though he has come to criticise the American Civil Liberties Union in recent years.
In 2018, Mr Dershowitz slammed the organisation for what he described as its leaning towards political activism, and the millions of dollars it has spent in recent years as it has taken a more active role in American elections.
He has endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 (if it comes down to the former vice president and Mr Trump)
It's not the first time he has supported Democrats, and had previously endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008, and Barack Obama in 2012.
What's interesting about the Biden endorsement is the former vice president's prominence in Mr Trump's case — the president was pushing for Ukraine to investigate none other than Mr Biden ahead of the 2020 race.
"I'm a strong supporter of Joe Biden. I like Joe Biden. I've liked him for a long time, and I could enthusiastically support Joe Biden," he told SiriusXM radio last year.
He is a strong supporter of Israel
Mr Dershowitz self-identifies as "Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine", even though he has been on record saying that the Palestinian people have supported genocidal war.
While he supported Mr Obama's 2012 election, he also criticised that president's foreign policy after the Obama administration abstained from a United Nations security resolution condemning Israel for building settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.
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