Alan Dershowitz explains how the Supreme Court just 'pulled the rug out of part two of impeachment'
'Look, the most important development happened today'
John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu
CHRIS ENLOE
Alan Dershowitz believes one of the "most important" developments in the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump happened Friday.
Ditch the fake news ==> Click here to get news you can trust sent right to your inbox. It's free!
Speaking with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Friday, the Harvard law professor explained the Supreme Court — by agreeing to hear a trio of cases involving subpoenas for the president's financial records — just "pulled the rug out of part two of impeachment."
"Look, the most important development happened today," Dershowitz said. "The Supreme Court of the United States absolutely pulled the rug out of part two of the impeachment referral by granting certiorari, by granting review in a case where Trump challenged a congressional subpoena. And the Supreme Court said we're going to hear this case."
"Think of what that message is: It's Trump was right," he continued. "You don't have to comply with a subpoena of Congress unless a court tells you you have to comply."
"Now, we don't know how the court is going to come out. But they made it clear that's a viable issue," Dershowitz went on to say. "So, that charge, that ground of impeachment, should be immediately removed by the House and not sent to the Senate. There's nothing to it anymore after the Supreme Court today said you're entitled to a review on an issue when the president challenges the subpoena power of Congress."
"It's all done. It's over," Dershowitz said.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments for the cases in March, and will likely issue their opinion in June 2020.
The case has significant implications for presidential immunity — in this case, whether a sitting president can resist subpoenas for their financial records — and as Dershowitz explained, the current impeachment proceedings.
Indeed, impeachment article two, which centers on Trump's alleged obstruction of Congress, charges that Trump has "directed the unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives."
If the Supreme Court finds that Trump has sufficient authority to resist certain congressional subpoenas, the implications related to impeachment are obviously significant.