Dershowitz: Since the Beginning of Time, Foreign Policy Operated on Quid Pro Quo

EXCERPT:

DERSHOWITZ: “Consider the following hypothetical case that is in our news today as the Israeli Prime Minister comes to the United States for meetings, let’s assume a Democratic president tells Israel that foreign aid authorized by Congress will not be sent or an Oval Office meeting will not be scheduled unless the Israelis stop building settlements, quid pro quo. I might disapprove of such a quid pro quo demand on policy grounds. But it would not constitute an abuse of power. Quid pro quo alone is not a basis for abuse of power. It's part of the way foreign policy has been operated by presidents since the beginning of time. The claim that foreign policy decisions can be deemed abuses of power based on subjective opinions about mixed or sole motives that the President was interested only in helping himself demonstrate the dangers of employing the vague, subjective and politically malleable phrase abuse of power as a constitutionally permissible criteria for the removal of a president.”