A claim by one of Donald Trump's lawyers that the head of state has virtually unchallengeable power inflamed his impeachment trial as Democratic prosecutors prepared Thursday for a last bid to breach Republican loyalty to the president.
Famed criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Wednesday advanced an argument that Trump's actions did not constitute an impeachable abuse of power because the president believed his re-election was in the public interest.
Dershowitz, a former Harvard University law professor, was addressing the central charge against Trump: that he illicitly pressured Ukraine to open investigations against rival Democrats and particularly his possible 2020 re-election challenger Joe Biden.
"Every public official I know believes that his election is in the public interest," Dershowitz told the 100 senators sitting in judgment at the historic trial -- in which Trump is hoping the Senate's Republican majority will ensure a speedy acquittal.
"If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."
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