THE BLAZE catalogs the debate between Dershowitz and Laurence Tribe via NEWSMAX. The best book written on the subject is the one pictured here… it delves into the debates over this PROCESS well.
I here reproduce the arguments I think the Founders clearly noted in their deliberations about the impeachment clause:
“It is difficult to imagine anything more unconstitutional, more violative of the intention of the Framers, more of a denial of basic due process and civil liberties, more unfair to the president and more likely to increase the current divisiveness among the American people. Put bluntly, it is hard to imagine a worse idea put forward by good people,” he added.
[….]
“President Trump would stand accused of two articles of impeachment without having an opportunity to be acquitted by the institution selected by the Framers to try all cases of impeachment,” Dershowitz said. “It would be as if a prosecutor deliberately decided to indict a criminal defendant but not to put him on trial.”
[….]
Dershowitz concluded that to deny Trump the “fundamental right” of a speedy trial “might serve the temporary interests of the Democratic Party, and academics who support it, but would do violence to the rule of constitutional law that is supposed to serve all Americans, regardless of party or ideology.”
This echoes leftist Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman, who testified on behalf of Democrats in front of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, essentially saying President Trump isn’t actually impeached until the Pelosi sends the articles to the other side of Capitol Hill. Feldman argues this point in a new piece for Bloomberg titled, “Trump Isn’t Impeached Until the House Tells the Senate.”
- According to the Constitution, impeachment is a process, not a vote. If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all.”… (TOWNHALL)