Harvard Law Professor Emeritus, Alan Dershowitz, offered his legal insight on the indictment against former President Trump, asserting that Special Counsel Jack Smith had only one job when he was assigned to the case: to "Get Trump." The indictment, which was unsealed in full last Friday, contains 37 counts and includes among the most serious charges those of withholding national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. Smith explained his view of the indictment which he based on the fact that there is a "set of laws" in the country that apply to all citizens and by simply gathering facts, and applying those laws, "that's what determines the outcome of an investigation, nothing more, nothing less."
Dershowitz argued that Smith was wrong when he said there is only one set of laws for the country. "He was assigned only one job: to get Trump," he assured in Sunday Morning Futures. "If you put aside all your resources and do what Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson warned about 80 years ago (where he said it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books or putting investigators to work to pin some offense on him) that's what they did."
Former Acting Attorney General of the United States, Mathew Whitaker, added that Smith has carried out an "aggressive prosecution" against the former president. "I'll point out that he was the one that got reversed 9-0 by the U.S. Supreme Court on the Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell case for taking a very aggressive position on a statute. You know, the interplay between the Presidential Records Act, which says all documents are covered by that act, and the Espionage Act, which preceded it" and was passed in 1917." "I think is going to be the most important issue that the courts are going to have to decide," Whitaker said.
Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. He maintains that he has done nothing wrong and plans to remain in the 2024 presidential race even if convicted. Dershowitz said that while he believes the case against the former president is "the product of targeting," the 44-page indictment lays out "damning evidence." The indictment highlights a recorded conversation Trump had at a meeting in 2021 in which he acknowledged that he had a document that he did not declassify.
The specialist had warned just two days earlier that the accusation was "extraordinarily dangerous" because it could move the election to the courts. He then opined that the judicial action could set a precedent of using the criminal judicial precedent against the opposition.
