TRUMP ATTORNEY SAYS DEFENSE DISTORTED

In a day-after tweet, President Donald Trump’s attorney Alan Dershowitz, the defense attorney and former college professor, complained about the portrayal of his testimony Wednesday night that a president, if he believes his reelection is in the “national interest,” is essentially immune from impeachment for actions in support of that idea.

That argument left even some of Trump’s top allies backing away.

“They characterized my argument as if I had said that if a president believes that his reelection was in the national interest, he can do anything,” the retired professor said Thursday. “I said nothing like that, as anyone who actually heard what I said can attest.”

Dershowitz testified to the Senate jurors late Wednesday that the quid pro quo charge at the heart of Trump’s impeachment — a trade of U.S. military aid for political favors — even if proved could not be grounds for his impeachment.

“Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest,” he said Wednesday night. “And 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.”

That argument was an abrupt turnaround from Trump’s claim of “perfect” dealings with Ukraine.

One key Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said only: “Yesterday was very interesting. That’s all I’m going to say.”

Attorney Alan Dershowitz took issue with portrayals of his defense of President Donald Trump.