Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz blasted as "utterly dishonest" a judge's "weaselly" ruling Friday to let Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proceed with her election interference prosecution of Donald Trump and his allies.
In a brutal takedown of the 23-page ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, a Dershowitz asked, "Who are you going to believe, this judge or your lying eyes?"
McAfee wrote that Willis could continue with the prosecution, but only if Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor she appointed and with whom she had an affair, withdraws from the case, noting an "appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team."
"I think the result is utterly dishonest," Dershowitz said. "Everybody knows … that she profited … that she conspired to commit perjury with Nathan Wade and with the other witness.
"We all know there was an actual conflict of interest here," he added. "[McAfee] just doesn't have the guts to say it. And I predicted he wouldn't have the guts to say it. He has to live in Fulton County."
Dershowitz conceded the judge "may have said some things that are very critical of her, but still, he should have removed [her] … from the case."
He also lamented how the ruling "undercuts our legal system tremendously."
"He should have ruled, honestly, yes, there's a conflict. Yes, she committed perjury. Yes there was a conspiracy. Yes, she received financial benefit for this. That's the truth and the truth matters," Dershowitz said.
Dershowitz pointed out the "actual conflict of interest" was that Willis "made money from this case."
"If anybody believes that she actually paid back every penny in cash, I got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn," he said. "There are people in prison, there are people in death row, based on evidence less strong than this."
Dershowitz also pounced on the "lies" Willis gave for why Wade was at her home "at 11 o'clock at night until 4 in the morning — playing Scrabble."
"This is a scandal and the judge just didn't have the courage to do the right thing," Dershowitz said. "And judges often don't, and they will find a way out. And this is a weaselly way out. Yes, of course, there was an appearance of injustice, appearance of conflict, but there was an actual conflict, and I hope that the defendants will appeal this, and I think they can."
According to Dershowitz, the ruling could be appealed on two issues: that the evidence is overwhelming that there was an actual conflict of interest, and that there shouldn't have to be an actual conflict of interest.
"There is a realistic appearance where virtually everybody looking at this says 'this smells to high heaven,'" Dershowitz said.
Though Dershowitz conceded he'd only read a "parts" of the ruling, "the result is wrong and the result is unjust and the result is inconsistent with what every person watching this hearing knows — they all know she got a financial benefit from this. They all know she lied on the stand. And ... you can't do justice that violates whatever everybody out there knows to be the truth."
Dershowitz also pointed out that "there was perjury committed on the witness stand in front of this judge" and that Willis and Wade "had a relationship that went back well before he hired her and that she made profit from the relationship."
"We know because there were records proving that he paid for all the trips," Dershowitz said. "And then we have to take her word. ... she paid him back in cash but kept no records. What reasonable lawyer knowing that there is a rule prohibiting getting benefits from somebody would not keep records?"
Dershowitz accused the judge of turning a blind eye to come "to this intermediate position — oh well, I'll get rid of one person, but not the other. I'll give each side a little bit. I'll say some nasty things, but he didn't have the courage to do the right thing.
"I think Americans out there who watch these hearings, they all know what actually happened here. And when the court refuses to accept the reality and the truth of what happened, it undercuts our system of justice."