While the Justice Department's special master recommendations are "eminently fair" compared to those of former President Donald Trump's lawyers, legal expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax he hopes the ongoing battle does not move to weaken executive privilege.
"The Department of Justice didn't seem to be appealing everything," Dershowitz told Saturday's "America Right Now." "They were focusing on two things. Number one: The timing — that they didn't want to delay their investigation, and I think they may very well win on that one. And second: They focused more on executive privilege, than they did on lawyer client privilege.
"I hope they lose on the executive privilege because it would really destroy executive privilege to conclude that the current president can weigh the executive privilege of a previous president."
Biden has rejected Trump's executive privilege claims, a battle that reaches beyond just the FBI raid of Trump's private residence at Mar-a-Lago.
The Trump lawyers' call for a special master has been granted by Judge Aileen Cannon, and the DOJ has done a focused job of challenging it, including nominating more acceptable special masters, according to Dershowitz.
"I think she was smart and giving each side an opportunity to do so, and I think the Justice Department was smarter than the Trump team on this," Dershowitz told host Tom Basile. "They named people who seemed more suitable, including a judge, woman judge who had previously been the special master in the [former Trump attorney Michael] Cohen case."
Dershowitz noted the Trump lawyers might have left Judge Cannon with little choice than to side with one of the DOJ's special master selections.
"I think, in the end, if she's smart, she'll pick the Justice Department's recommendation, and that will give her cover against claims of partisanship," Dershowitz concluded. "That would be the smart thing to do, and both of the Justice Department recommendations seem eminently fair."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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