Alan Dershowitz interview: is Trump impeachment possible?

What difference do you think the appointment of a special counsel
makes? Does it make impeachment any more likely?
No, it makes no difference. It is largely
windowdressing. Most of the complaint against the Trump
administration have nothing to do with criminal conduct. For example,
if his campaign collaborated with the Russians, that is wrong, but not
criminal. If he leaked information to the Russians which led the
Russians to be able to develop sources, that is wrong, but not
criminal. If he fired, as he did, the director of the FBI, that is not
criminal. If he asked the director of the FBI to let it go when it came
to Flynn, that is not criminal. The only criminal conduct they will find
is perhaps against Flynn. And more likely, against the former national
security officer that leaked to the Washington Post classified material
about what Trump did in the Oval Office. So the irony is that there
is a special prosecutor appointed to get Trump, essentially. And Trump
will not be a target of this because he committed no actual criminal
conduct, and the people who will be prosecuted and go to jail will be
two intelligence officers who leaked classified material, and maybe
General Flynn. This is not the way to get the truth. For the truth, you
appoint independent fact-finding commission that has subpoena power.
Everything the special counsel does is behind closed doors. Grandeur is
operate in secrecy. You can't disclose the testimony -- grand
juries operate in secrecy. The witnesses don't have lawyers there.
It is the star chamber brought to America, thank you very much, Great
Britain. But the grand jury is not the appropriate vehicle for
informing the American public what may have gone wrong with the Trump
administration. So this is much ado about nothing.
But there is the law and under is politics. So when it
comes to impeachment, it is as much if not more about politics. We saw
what Kenneth Starr did with the Clinton administration. This does
become an unpredictable beast, doesn't it? How long it goes on,
what it looks into? A beast is a
perfect example. The special counsel is Captain Ahab, and this target is
the white whale, Moby Dick. When you give a prosecutor one job, get that
person, it reminds me of what the head of the notorious Soviet KGB
once told Stalin. He said, show me the man and I will find you the
crime. When you target somebody and you have prosecutors looking to find
criminal conduct, it's more likely that they will find it even when
it's not there. So as a civil libertarian who cares deeply about
due process and the constitution, I am not applauding the appointment of
this special prosecutor, even though I know him. Bob Mueller is a
terrific guy. I knew him when he was a US attorney in Massachusetts and
you could not find a better person. It is the process that I am critical
of. I don't think it will lead the American public to know what really
went on and what they are really interesting in knowing - was their
coordination with the Russians? Those things are not within the
jurisdiction of the special counsel. Trump says this is the biggest
witchhunt in American history. If you think back to McCarthyism and
sale, where do you put it in history?
It's not even close. For example, the attacks on President
Clinton for Monica Lewinsky were a greater intrusion into privacy. This
is like a four on a scale of ten. It's very appropriate for the media
to serve as a check and balance, particularly when both houses of
Congress are in the hands of the Republicans. You need a system of
checks and balances, and the media is doing a good job. Remember, the
media in our country, like and yours, consists of left-wing media,
like you have the Guardian, and right-wing media like Fox, and
centrist media like CNN. It's not appropriate to complain about the
witchhunt. Many of the problems that Trump has our self induced. If he
hadn't fired Cami and if he hadn't tried to limit on Rosenstiel,
Rosenstein would not have tried to have appointed special counsel. In
the end, Trump will benefit because everything is done in secret and he
will -- it will probably have no indictments in the end. I predict
here, and you can play it back a year from now, that there will be no
indictments against any current member of the administration and not
against Donald Trump.

Alan Dershowitz interview: is Trump impeachment possible?

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