In Alan Dershowitz’s telling, he’s stayed the same. It’s everyone else who’s changed.

The retired Harvard law professor, whose decades-long career made him one of the nation’s most recognizable liberal advocates, is now playing a surprising role: one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest defenders. In an interview on Friday, I began to ask him about his newfound role as an “advocate” for Trump. He quickly interrupted me.

“I’m not an advocate for President Trump, let’s be clear,” he told me. “I’m an advocate for civil liberties. I’d be making the exact same point for Hillary Clinton if she were elected president.”

Dershowitz isn’t alone among legal scholars in questioning aspects of the Russia investigation. There’s debate over whether it would be constitutional to indict a sitting president and whether Trump committed obstruction of justice. But few law professors can match Dershowitz’s name recognition, his long history of supporting Democrats, or his frequent appearances on cable television. This has made him a valuable asset for Trump as he wages a barely disguised war on special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry.



A must watch: Legal Scholar Alan Dershowitz was just on @foxandfriends talking of what is going on with respect to the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. political history. Enjoy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2017

“Special Council is told to find crimes, whether a crime exists or not. I was opposed to the selection of Mueller to be Special Council. I am still opposed to it. I think President Trump was right when he said there never should have been a Special Council appointed because..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2018

...there was no probable cause for believing that there was any crime, collusion or otherwise, or obstruction of justice!” So stated by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2018

Dershowitz’s defense of the president has bewildered some of his friends and colleagues. In March, Jeffrey Toobin, a New Yorker staff writer and CNN senior legal analyst, confronted Dershowitz on TV about “carrying water” for Trump. “This is not who you used to be,” Toobin told him. “And you are doing this over and over again in situations that are just obviously ripe with conflict of interest. And it’s just, like, what’s happened with you?”