The Jan. 6 Select House Committee's referral of criminal charges against former President Donald Trump "and others" is a violation of the Constitution that both the left and right should be defending former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz tells Newsmax.
Dershowitz agreed that the way the panel was set up was partisan, seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans all appointed by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but said Monday on "The Chris Salcedo Show", "it's even worse than that."
The referral by a congressional committee vote to the Justice Department on Monday violates multiple provisions of the Constitution, he said.
First, he said, Article 1 gives Congress only the power to legislate, not the power to prosecute or to refer cases to the Justice Department.
Second, there is a specific prohibition against bills of attainder used by the British Parliament to name certain individuals to prosecute.
"There's only one exception to this, and that is the 14th Amendment, which gives Congress the power to enforce the prohibition against anybody holding office who engaged in insurrection of the kind that took place during the Civil War," Dershowitz said. "The action by this congressional committee is in clear violation, both of the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
Not only should the Justice Department ignore the referral, it should rebuke the committee for interfering with the separation of powers in the system of checks and balances, he said.
"Look, I don't like that Donald Trump said that he thought the election being unfair may give people the right to ignore the Constitution. He was wrong," Dershowitz said.
"The Democrats are wrong," he added. "Everybody who wants to violate the Constitution to achieve partisan benefits is wrong, and we civil libertarians, whether you're Republican or a Democrat, left or right should be fighting to preserve the Constitution."
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