Washington (CNN) Alan Dershowitz, a recent addition to President Donald Trump's legal team, said Sunday that he plans to revive an 1868 argument used during former President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial when he is arguing on behalf of Trump on the Senate floor.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the two articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate last week, charging the President with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate trial is slated to begin on Tuesday , where Republicans and Democrats are expected to battle over a resolution setting the rules for the trial and shortly after start opening arguments.

Dershowitz said on CNN's "State of the Union" that he would be paraphrasing former Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis, who served as the chief counsel during Johnson's impeachment, in saying the framers of the Constitution intended for impeachable conduct to mean "criminal-like conduct."

Dershowitz said he will argue that because the House charges do not include criminal conduct, there is no need for witnesses. If this reasoning prevails, he said, there would not be any reason for any further witnesses or arguments.

"(Curtis) argued successfully to the Senate that criminal-like conduct is required. That argument prevailed. I will be making that argument as a lawyer on behalf of the President's defense team against impeachment. That's my role. It's very clear. I have done it before," Dershowitz, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School, said.

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