Alan Dershowitz said that Democrats and those calling President Donald Trump's performance in Helsinki an act of treason have gone "completely over the top," the noted law scholar and professor told conservative voice Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.
"You might not like what Trump did. I didn’t like what he did. But to call it treason is just wrong as a matter of constitutional law," Dershowitz said on Hewitt's radio show.
"What President Trump is alleged to have done, you know, making the image of Putin stronger and helping him gain international credibility around the world doesn’t even come close to treason under the Constitution," Dershowitz said.
It's another example of shrill Democrats making Trump even stronger with his base, Dershowitz said.
"It shows that the Democrats and the opponents of Trump are not making nuanced, carefully thought through, calibrated criticisms. They’re going completely, completely over the top," Dershowitz said.
However, there's a reason that Democrats and Trump haters are intentionally choosing the word "treason," even though it's not remotely applicable.
"Treason is one of the two crimes specified for impeachment, and that’s why I think so many of the Trump opponents are focusing on treason, because if he did commit treason … then he would be subject to impeachment," Dershowitz said.
"But the criteria for treason is laid out clearly in the Constitution, and people shouldn’t just be making up crimes," Dershowitz said.
"So I think we’re seeing Trump’s opponents lose credibility by making these kind of arguments that just have no basis in law or the Constitution.
"I didn’t vote for Donald Trump. I voted for Hillary Clinton. I’m a liberal Democrat. But I don’t want to see the law stretched to target somebody whose politics we disapprove of," Dershowitz said.
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