The Republicans’ defense of the president has focused, in part, on the argument that neither the articles of impeachment nor the evidence presented at the trial has shown any crimes, or, in the words of Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, any “criminal-like conduct.” I am no constitutional scholar and cannot speak to the appropriate standards, but as a former federal prosecutor and longtime criminal defense lawyer, I can look at a charging document and a set of facts and see the federal criminal charges implicated. Leveraging this experience, and from what I’ve seen thus far in the trial, any prosecutor worth his or her salt could make a clear case that the president and others engaged in illegal activities, including conspiracy, bribery and obstruction of Congress.

The Illegal Conspiracy to Violate Election Laws