Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz fought it out on Twitter Sunday after saying Trump campaign collusion wouldn’t have been a crime. It started, as many fights do, with an appearance on Fox News. He appeared on Fox and Friends, attacking the Mueller probe and also the allegation that Hillary Clinton rigged the primary with the Democratic National Committee. His argument: There’s no statute criminalizing the behaviors, so there’s no crime. Someone might do something wrong, but that doesn’t mean it’s illegal.
“The difference between outrage and criminality has to be kept sharp,” he said. “Otherwise, anything you disagree with, if you’re the people in power, you can go after your political enemies.”
Cue outrage.
Dershowitz responded to this first.
Next up on Dershowitz’s radar: Renato Mariotti, a Democratic candidate for Illinois attorney general.
“How do you know, @AlanDersh?” he wrote. “Are you reviewing the evidence alongside Mueller’s team? Stop making stuff up.”
One again, Dershowitz responded.
“Collusion is not a crime no matter how much evidence there might be,” he wrote. “Neither is collusion with the DNC a crime.”
CNN contributor and former Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon also attacked Dershowitz for allegedly downplaying the allegation that the Trump campaign helped out in Russian interference efforts in the 2016 election.
“Dershowitz calling for the Mueller probe to be shut down is adequate basis to wonder whether Trump is paying him,” he wrote.
Dershowitz was not pleased with this tweet. He said neither Trump nor Clinton was paying him, and said that he saw no evidence that either committed a crime.
“How low can you get to suggest I’m being paid for saying what I’ve been saying for 50 years,” he shot back. “Shame on you.”
Another Harvard law professor also stepped up: Laurence Tribe, who has repeatedly argued that the president committed impeachable offenses.
Dershowitz responded to him last:
Is “collusion” illegal? Depends on what’s being alleged. The question popped up when Donald J. Trump Jr., a figure in his father’s candidacy, admitted to meeting with a Russian lawyer for “dirt” on Clinton. It’s possible that he broke a campaign finance law by soliciting “a thing of value” from a foreign national, but he has access to at least one defense.
[Screengrab via Fox News]