What Constitutes an Impeachable Offense?

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week’s guilty plea from Michael Cohen and the conviction of Paul Manafort prompted widespread debate over whether the president was implicated in criminal acts and if he should be impeached. Alan Dershowitz and Joshua Matz join host Jeffrey Rosen for a spirited debate on when and how the Framers intended for the impeachment power to be used. A transcript of the podcast is linked here. This text may not be in its final form and accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center,
0:23.0	and welcome to We the People,
0:24.5	the weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:27.0	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution
0:31.0	chartered by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:38.0	We've had a number of new developments in the ongoing Mueller investigation and related criminal investigations.
0:46.6	And we have joining we the people today two of America's leading experts on the impeachment
0:52.4	clause of the Constitution.
0:53.4	Both of them have written important new books about impeachment and we are so
0:58.4	honored to have them to debate the founder's conception of what counted as an impeachable offense and whether or not
1:04.7	any of the recent allegations might qualify.
1:08.4	Alan Dershooitz is Felix Frankfurter professor of law, emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the author of the new book,
1:14.5	The Case Against Impeaching Trump, published earlier this summer.
1:19.2	He's been called the nation's most parapetetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual
1:24.2	rights, Alan, it is an honor to have you back on We The People.
1:28.2	Well I love being on and I love your center and I follow everything you do so it's my honor and and thank you for
1:35.6	having me. Thank you so much for that and Joshua Matts is of counsel at
1:39.8	Gupta Wesley and Kaplan where his practice includes appellate litigation up to which he co-wrote with Professor Lawrence Tribe,
1:53.1	a publisher of the Take Care blog,
1:54.8	and a returning champion to We the People as well.
1:58.8	Joshua, it is wonderful to talk with you again as well. Thank you for having me and I just echo Alan and saying that I think the world of the work that you do and I'm excited to discuss the Constitution with you both today.
2:10.0	Great, well let's plunge right in.
	...

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