New York Attorney General Letitia James ran for office on the promise that she would bring criminal charges on former President Donald Trump, and that’s unheard of, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said to Newsmax Saturday.
“That’s how she got elected,” said Dershowitz on Newsmax’s “Saturday Report.” “If she doesn’t get Donald Trump, she’s not gonna be reelected. That’s not the way prosecutors should operate. “
New York prosecutors have convened a grand jury that will, over the next six weeks, hear evidence to determine whether to indict Trump and his business organization on charges of fraud, but Dershowitz said it’s not hard for any prosecutor to get an indictment.
“If a prosecutor is determined to get somebody, particularly a businessman who has complex business dealings over the years, it’s not so difficult to get an indictment,” said Dershowitz.
He added that judges and prosecutors should not be elected people or political jobs.
“The United States government made a very serious mistake during the Jacksonian democracy, period,” he said. “We’re the only country in the world that elects prosecutors, that elects judges.”
He added that if he was representing Trump, he would move to disqualify the prosecutors who have taken positions against him before evidence is presented.
“I don’t want to ever make comparisons to Stalin, but when Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the KGB of the way the American system is supposed to operate,” said Dershowitz. “The American system of justice is supposed to operate neutrally and objectively. You look at the evidence, and the evidence shows that there is a substantial case against somebody, then you indict. But you don’t go looking for things to indict against a particular person, and that’s what’s going on with former President Trump.”
However, Dershowitz said there will probably be some kind of indictment, but then there will be an acquittal “because you know, you have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. You have to prove it to the satisfaction of 12 jurors unanimously and that’s going to be a much harder, much, much harder task than simply getting a mere indictment or opening up a criminal investigation.”
