Dershowitz Dodges on Whether Trump Did ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Ukraine: ‘Not Part of My Mandate’

As Harvard Law emeritus Alan Dershowitz spoke about his role on Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, he repeatedly dodged questions about the president’s insistence that he did “nothing wrong” with regard to the Ukraine scandal.

Throughout his Sunday interview with George Stephanopoulos, Dershowitz argued that abuse of power does not fulfill the Constitution’s criteria for impeachment, even if the arguments laid out against the president are accepted as fact. At one point, Stephanopoulos asked Dershowitz if he agrees with the briefing filed by Trump’s attorneys which says the president “did nothing wrong with Ukraine.”

“I didn’t sign that brief, I didn’t even see the brief until after it was filed,” Dershowitz said. “That’s not part of my mandate.”

As Dershowitz tried to return to his Trump defense argument, Stephanopoulos continued to dig by asking “as a citizen, do you think it is okay for a president to solicit foreign interference in our election?” Dershowitz shied away by calling it a matter of who a person votes for, saying “I’m liberal Democrat who has been critical of many of the policies for the president.”

The back-and-forth continued with Stephanopoulos asking if Trump’s actions were “okay,” while Dershowitz said “as a lawyer in the case, I’m not going to present my personal views on what I think.” Eventually, Stephanopoulos invoked a portion of Dershowitz’s book where he said “an American should not collude with a foreign power…in an effort to enhance his candidacy.”

“Isn’t that what happened here?” Stephanopoulos asked. He followed up shortly after by asking if “you’re not willing to endorse” the statement from Trump’s other lawyers.

“I did not read that brief or sign that brief. That’s not part of my mandate,” Dershowitz answered. “My mandate is to present the Constitutional argument, and if the constitutional argument succeeds, we don’t reach that issue because you can’t charge a president with impeachable conduct if it doesn’t fit within the criteria of the Constitution.”

Watch above, via ABC.