Former Harvard Law School professor and author Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax Saturday that even as an "anti-Trump voter" and "liberal Democrat," he thinks the cases against former President Donald Trump are not justified and instead demonstrate political persecution.
"As an anti-Trump voter, somebody who voted against him twice and intends to vote against him for the third time, and as a civil libertarian, and a liberal, and a Democrat, I am very dissatisfied with the way this prosecution has gone," Dershowitz said during "The Count" Saturday. "As a liberal Democrat, I'm not satisfied that justice will be done in this case in the District of Columbia in front of this judge."
Trump was arraigned and pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., Thursday on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. In the indictment, returned by a grand jury and based on the investigation of a team led by special counsel Jack Smith, Trump is accused of conspiring with six co-defendants, who were not named, in a plan to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Dershowitz said that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case and was appointed by former President Barack Obama, "has a record" of anti-Trump bias. Chutkan sentenced some of the people involved in the Jan. 6 protest with harsher sentences than the Department of Justice attorneys sought, he said, and she previously worked at a law firm with Hunter Biden.
"This is one of the most corrupt law firms in American history," he said. "The motto of this law firm essentially is conflicts of interest. They have been charged with more conflicts of interest than any large firm that I know of."
Dershowitz said this is one of the most "controversial" cases in U.S. history and that prosecuting a former president and current GOP front-runner in the 2024 race, who will likely face Biden in the general election, must be "above reproach."
"The case ought to be moved out of the District of Columbia, where 95% of the voters are anti-Trump," he said. "It ought to be taken away from this judge and moved to a judge who doesn't have a record, doesn't have a history with Trump, with Biden, with sentencing people harshly on Jan. 6. The appearance of justice in this case is crucially important."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.