Saturday on MSNBC, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and former Bush ethics lawyer Richard Painter, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, had a tense exchange over the merits of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election.

After Dershowitz began to question some of Mueller’s tactics, Painter interrupted Dershowitz by saying he wasn’t going to allow Dershowitz to question Mueller’s integrity.

Dershowitz replied by questioning Painter’s motives, which he suggested were part of an effort to “parlay” his opinion of President Donald Trump into a seat in the U.S. Senate.

“Let me assault your reputation,” Dershowitz said. “Painter is trying to parlay his anti-Trump zealotry into a run for the Senate. He has lied repeatedly about me.”

Painter later took to Twitter to defend his stance on Mueller.

I am pleased to debate with anyone the civil liberties issues involved with various tactics used by prosecutors against organized criminals and, occasionally, presidents.

But anyone who goes on TV to slander the reputation of Robert Mueller is going to get an earful from me. — Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) May 5, 2018

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor