Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, while speaking about the charges looming over former President Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Sunday that he would have told a student of his considering such claims to seek another profession, as such actions equal prosecutorial abuse.
"You're supposed to look at the statute book clearly and find out whether a crime has been committed and then find out who did it," said Dershowitz during Sunday's special coverage of Trump's announcement that he could be facing criminal charges this week.
But, he added, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York state Attorney General Letitia James have decided to get the former president, no matter what it takes, even if it is unconstitutional.
"This is the worst kind of prosecutorial abuse," said Dershowitz. "I hate to make analogies to the Soviet Union, but it's very similar to what the head of the KGB, Joseph Stalin said, 'Show me the man, and I'll find you the crime.'"
Even the Bible has instructions to law enforcement, not to take bribes and "don't recognize faces," meaning justice should be blind, said Dershowitz.
"But Bragg has peaked beneath the blindfold" of justice and has decided that since it's Trump in question, "'let's go through all the statutes and all the case books. Let's see if we can pin something on him. Justice [Robert] Jackson, a former attorney general of the United States, said that any prosecutor — a dishonest, unethical prosecutor — could rummage through the statute books and come up with something against virtually anyone."
Trump said Saturday on his Truth Social page that he expects to be arrested Tuesday in a case brought by the Manhattan district attorney's office in connection to a payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with him. Trump has denied the claims.
But Dershowitz said the case really would not be about Trump but about prosecutors seeking charges against "anybody."
"I'm not voting for Donald Trump," Dershowitz said. "I have a constitutional right to vote against him for the third time. That shouldn't be interfered with by any prosecutor. This is about you and me. This is about your Uncle Charlie. This is about your daughter-in-law. This is about prosecutors being able to go after anybody. And it doesn't matter if you're a liberal, conservative, Democrat, or Republican.
"My biggest disappointment is with civil libertarians, people who claim they believe in the Constitution remaining silent in the face of this horrible injustice."
He also discussed reports that Bragg, like several other district attorneys across the country, was voted into office after funding through megadonor George Soros, while rejecting arguments from some quarters that say it's antisemitic to speak out about the influential multimillionaire.
"I'm a proud, deeply committed Jew and Zionist. And I think that what Soros is doing — distorting civil liberties, distorting human rights — is outrageous. And I want to be the first to attack George Soros," said Dershowitz. "I'm not attacking him because he's Jewish. I'm attacking him because what he's doing is wrong. ... Whether we're Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, we have the right to attack him on the merits. So don't be fearful of the charge of antisemitism when you're going after Soros on the merits."
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