Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Sunday on Newsmax that if he were former President Donald Trump, he wouldn't be optimistic about the outcome of his trial in Manhattan, as he would not get a fair trial with the jury that has been picked.
"The jury is not a good one for Trump," Dershowitz told Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "It's probably as good as you can get out of a jury pool of 85% voters against Trump but it's not a good jury."
The jury is a "typical group of New Yorkers," he added, saying that if a fair trial is being sought for Trump, the proceedings must be moved elsewhere, such as Rockland County or Staten Island, "but you don't have it in Manhattan."
"The lawyers did as good as they could do with this jury pool, but too many of them get their news from The New York Times, CNN, and other places," Dershowitz said. "I don't trust this jury to give a fair trial."
The jury is also there to determine facts, but there's "no crime" in the allegations that Trump used his business records to hide hush money payments before his first election, said Dershowitz.
Dershowitz also called Judge Juan Merchan's gag order against Trump unconstitutional.
"You're entitled to criticize a witness in public," he said. "You're entitled to criticize the judge's daughter who may be making money every time the judge rules in favor of the prosecution, so that's unconstitutional."
It is also not constitutional for the judge to require Trump to be in court every day, including on the day of his son Barron's high school graduation, said Dershowitz.
"The law permits the judge to rule that he can leave the court on any given day and waive his rights ... the defendant has the right to be there clearly, but he also has the right not to be there if he chooses, and the state can't interfere with that," he said.
Dershowitz said he expects the prosecution, in Monday's opening statements, to lay out a simple case showing that Trump refused to disclose hush money so he would win his election, rather than protecting his family and businesses.
Meanwhile, Dershowitz said last week's call from Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to strip Trump of his Secret Service protection if he is jailed on any of the charges he faces is "ridiculous."
"That means that they want him killed," said Dershowitz. "We live in an age where everybody is in danger. Look, Bobby Kennedy ought to be getting Secret Service protection, but certainly, Donald Trump needs to get Secret Service protection … the judge is not going to throw Donald Trump in jail. That would be a guaranteed victory. It would even get people like me, perhaps, to vote for him if he was jailed on an unconstitutional charge."
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