Alan Dershowitz said former President Donald Trump should “be worried” about a potential indictment from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
However, he said any indictment would likely get overturned on appeal.
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is reportedly preparing to bring criminal charges against Trump stemming from a $130,000 hush money payment he made via his attorney at the time, Michael Cohen. Trump said he was unaware of the payment, which was made to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Cohen maintains that Trump directed him to make the payment to Daniels, with whom Trump had an affair, and reimbursed him for it.
While the payment itself is not necessarily illegal, Bragg is reportedly examining whether Trump falsified business records to conceal it.
Dershowitz told Fox News the episode shows that the justice system is in peril.
“There are two systems of justice in the United States and our justice system is in deep trouble,” he said. “We’ve created a special system of justice for Donald Trump.”
The former Harvard law professor said that when deciding to prosecute, there should be clear evidence of a crime.
“They have targeted Trump. The attorney general of New York ran on the campaign, Get Trump,” he said, referring to Attorney General Letitia James. “Bragg essentially did the same thing. They rummaged for years to try to find something. They gave immunity to witnesses. They couldn’t find a real statute, so they put statutes together.”
He said if Trump’s attorneys file a motion to dismiss, he does not think it would be granted, adding:
I don’t think they’ll be a motion to dismiss that succeeds. This is New York justice. In New York, of course you can indict a ham sandwich. But in New York, you can also convict a ham sandwich because the jury pool will be very much against Trump and the judges will be very much against Trump.
So, if I were him, I would be worried today. He’ll probably ultimately win on appeal, but do judges today have the courage – if they run for election as prosecutors run for election – to do something favorable to Trump in a city which overwhelmingly despises Trump? That’s what’s wrong with this justice system.
Dershowitz served as Trump’s lawyer at his first impeachment trial in the Senate.
Watch above via Fox News.
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