Democrats had three goals with the Manhattan criminal trial involving former President Donald Trump, legal scholar Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Tuesday.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was charged with falsifying business records to cover up a payment to Stormy Daniels to keep the adult film performer quiet about an alleged affair.
"The purpose of this trial is three-fold," Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said on "National Report." "No. 1, to convict him down and dirty before the election, although it will get reversed after the election. No. 2, to have a gag order on him, and No. 3, to keep them locked up in the courtroom, so he can't campaign, and those goals may very well be accomplished.
"This is election interference at its most obvious, and every American, no matter whether you're for Trump or against him … I voted for [President Joe] Biden ... whatever your political affiliation is … I'm a Democrat … you should be equally concerned about how this legal system is being weaponized and abused for partisan purposes."
During testimony on Monday, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen admitted to recording Trump without the former president's knowledge.
"It's unethical," Dershowitz told co-hosts Shaun Kraisman and Emma Rechenberg. "It violates the code of professional responsibility. And then he lied about the reason he did it.
"He said the reason he did it was to provide the tape recording to [former National Enquirer publisher] David Pecker. Most jurors will think the reason he did it was to protect himself in case Trump turns against him."
Regardless of Cohen's motivation to record Trump, Dershowitz said, "it's not ethical to record your own client without your client knowing about it, even if you think you're doing it to protect him.
"The whole incident regarding the recording is not going to be believed by the jury," Dershowitz said. "And if the jury thinks that Cohen lied to them, even if they don't care that he lied to other people, jurors care deeply if they're lied to.
"I think anybody on the jury, certainly the two lawyers on the jury, will look askance at his testimony for the reason why he claims he did this on ethical thing of recording his own client."
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Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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