Professor Alan Dershowitz - Photo by Analyzing America
WASHINGTON DC (WSAU) – Alan Dershowitz, the former Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard University and recognized as “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” is speaking out.
Dershowitz penned an op-ed for the Daily Caller on Monday outlining the allegations against former President Trump and offering his thoughts on what comes next in the case.
He began by noting that “Mr. Smith did his job well” and part of the reason the former President finds himself possibly looking at prison time unlike other former officials like Mike Pence is due to him not returning the documents immediately following the request.
“Mr. Smith had a lot of help from Mr. Trump. Had the former president cooperated with investigators and immediately returned all the classified material in his possession, as Messrs. Biden and Pence did, charges would have been unlikely. But Mr. Trump did what he always does. He attacked Mr. Smith and resisted his efforts. That provoked investigators to double down, which in turn led Mr. Trump to engage in the allegedly obstructive conduct that forms the basis for several counts in the indictment,” Dershowitz said in the Daily Caller op-ed.
Dershowitz believes that Trump’s defense team will argue that as a former President, Trump was entitled to keep possession of classified material under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which establishes detailed procedures for handling the records of former presidents and a civil process for resolving disputes about them.
He also states that one of Trump’s biggest alleged mistakes was the “This is secret information” video where the former President waved classified documents around with non-cleared individuals present.
“The reason this recording is so powerful is that it is self-proving. It doesn’t rely on testimony by flipped witnesses or antagonists of Mr. Trump. It is the kind of evidence every defense lawyer dreads and every prosecutor dreams about,” Dershowitz stated.
Dershowitz noted that he doesn’t view this case as nearly as strong as the one that led to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation back in 1974 by saying, “Many of the charges, in this case, are matters of degree. Nor have prosecutors any evidence that Mr. Trump’s actions damaged national security more than those of Mr. Biden, Mr. Pence, and Mrs. Clinton did.”
His op-ed finished by discussing concerns people on both sides of the aisle have that this case appears to be targeting the possible top political opponent of President Biden when said, “When an incumbent administration prosecutes the leading candidate against the president, it should have a case that is so compelling that it attracts the kind of bipartisan support that forced Nixon to resign. No such support is currently apparent, since many Republicans continue to be troubled by the targeting of Mr. Trump.”
Former President Trump arrived in Miami earlier today and is scheduled to appear in federal court tomorrow to face 37 felony counts related to the handling of secret documents.
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