The committee investigating Jan. 6 may have referred former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for potential prosecution, but it's unconstitutional for members of Congress to recommend prosecution for anyone, making the committee's determination a "worthless piece of paper," Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax, Monday.
"Congress has no power to recommend prosecution," Dershowitz told Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "There is a provision of the Constitution against bills of attainder. Those were parliamentary indictments of unpopular people by name, and the framers of the Constitution put only two provisions in the actual Constitution before the Bill of Rights, no ex post facto laws and no bills of attainder."
By definition, bills of attainder are the act of a legislature declaring a person or group of people guilty of a crime and punishing them, usually without a trial, and Dershowitz said that through separation of powers, "you don't let Congress say who to prosecute."
For that reason, not only should the DOJ reject the committee's recommendation, but it should reprimand the committee for referring the former president to face charges, said Dershowitz.
However, Dershowitz said he hopes for a reprimand, but he does not think that will happen, even if he does expect that the DOJ won't take the recommendation seriously.
"The Justice Department will say [to] Congress, Look we process, we investigate," said Dershowitz. "Don't tell us who to investigate and who to prosecute. You had a kangaroo hearing. One-sided.
"You didn't allow a cross-examination. You didn't allow any adverse witnesses, so don't expect us to take seriously any recommendations. You made a bad prosecution, so the American public should make no conclusions based on this one-sided recommendation and it should ignore it as well."
Dershowitz added to Bachman that if he "recommended prosecution, would have more weight."
Meanwhile, Dershowitz said that he believes the role of outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the proceedings was to "give cover to anti-Trump Democrats."
"Look, I'm an anti-Trump Democrat," said Dershowitz. "I'm going to vote for his opponent in the next election, as I did twice before, but I put civil liberties in the Constitution before I put politics and partisanship, and Liz Cheney doesn't do that. She has switched allegiance, and she puts that before any constitutional right."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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