Alan Dershowitz: Elizabeth Warren ‘Doesn’t Understand the Law’

Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz criticized Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday after she branded his argument against impeachment as “nonsensical,” declaring that she “doesn’t understand the law” and adding that the presidential hopeful “willfully mischaracterized” what he said.

“Warren doesn’t understand the law,” Dershowitz began.

“My former colleague, Senator Warren, claims she could not follow my carefully laid out presentation that everybody else seemed to understand,” he wrote. “This says more about Warren than it does about me.”

“She also willfully mischaracterized what I said, claiming that I spoke about ‘intent.’ I challenge her to find that word anywhere in my presentation. I talked about the difficulty of discerning mixed motives,” he continued in a series of tweets.

“If Warren knew anything about criminal law she would understand the distinction between motives – which are not elements of crime—and intent, which is,” he continued, quipping, “It’s the responsibility of presidential candidates to have a better understanding of the law”:

Warren doesn’t understand the law.
My former colleague, Senator Warren, claims she could not follow my carefully laid out presentation that everybody else seemed to understand. This says more about Warren than it does about me. (1 of 2)

— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 28, 2020

(3 OF 3)
If Warren knew anything about criminal law she would understand the distinction between motives – which are not elements of crime—and intent, which is. It’s the responsibility of presidential candidates to have a better understanding of the law.

— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 28, 2020

The Harvard Law School professor emeritus explained on Monday that neither of the charges against the president — abuse of power nor obstruction of Congress — amounts to “criminal-like conduct akin to treason and bribery,” which he contends is required for a legitimate impeachment.

“This is the key point in this impeachment case … purely non-criminal conduct including ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of Congress’ [the charges against Trump] are outside the range of impeachable offenses,” he said.

Warren, however, argued that she “truly could not follow” Dershowitz’s argument.

She stated:

His characterization of the law simply is unsupported. He is a criminal law professor who stood in the well of the Senate and talked about how law never inquires into intent and that we should not be using the president’s intent as part of understanding impeachment.

“Criminal law is all about intent. Mens rea is the heart of criminal law. That’s the very basis of it. So it makes his whole presentation just nonsensical,” she added. “I truly could not follow it.”

Democrats have attempted to trash Dershowitz for a week — first in anticipation of his arguments and then in an attempt to downplay them.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told Fox News on Tuesday that Dershowitz was “embarrassing,” though he did not explain why. Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) belittled Dershowitz as a “criminal defense lawyer” who, Schiff said, was not a constitutional expert.