Harvard University professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz called the possibility of criminal referrals over impeachment against President Joe Biden a "tit-for-tat weaponization of the criminal justice system" by Republicans after the slate of charges and two impeachments against former President Donald Trump.
"This is the Republicans saying 'You did it to us. We're going to do it to you,'" Dershowitz said Wednesday on Newsmax's "National Report," after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer indicated that the investigation against Biden may result in criminal referrals rather than articles of impeachment.
"There's no possible basis for impeachment," Dershowitz said. "Remember, I defended President Trump on the grounds that impeachment requires specific criminal-type behavior, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The Republicans agreed with me."
But now that the claims are about Biden, Dershowitz said, "they're changing their views. [It's] hypocritical."
Republicans are saying they won't go after impeachment, but instead will seek criminal charges against Biden, Dershowitz added.
"First, the statute of limitations is probably over on most of them," said Dershowitz, adding that charges could have been brought "a long time ago."
"This is coming because it's tit-for-tat because the Democrats are doing it to the Republicans," he said.
Dershowitz also noted that former Trump adviser Peter Navarro started serving his four-month prison sentence Tuesday on charges of contempt of Congress for disobeying a subpoena to testify to the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, but "he shouldn't have."
"The American public suffers when both sides weaponize the criminal justice system for partisan purposes, so I'm opposed to both sides doing this," Dershowitz said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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