Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said Friday the prosecution of former President Donald Trump over contesting the 2020 election “looks like banana republic land” in response to reports that President Joe Biden has grown frustrated over the slow pace of the Department of Justice’s investigation.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges during his Thursday arraignment after Special Counsel Jack Smith secured a four-count indictment of Trump relating to his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election.
The New York Times reported that Biden expressed frustration with the pace of the probe into Trump, telling close associates that Trump was a threat to democracy and needed to be prosecuted by the Justice Department.
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“President Biden urged his attorney general to indict the man who he knew was going to be the leading opponent if against him,” Dershowitz told David Asman, who guest-hosted “Kudlow” on Fox Business Network. “That begins to look like banana republic land. That’s what happens when people in power are afraid of the democratic process. What they do is they seek the indictment and prosecution of the people who are running against them.”
“I have a constitutional right to vote against Donald Trump for the third time,” Dershowitz said. “I voted against him twice, I intend to vote against him again, but I want to have that right to vote against him and not have that right taken away from me by prosecutors and by the president, who wants to see him imprisoned. That’s just not the American way.”
Dershowitz also noted the choice of the District of Columbia as the venue for the trial, prompting Asman to ask if the United States was becoming a “banana republic,” noting his coverage of Latin America and Eastern Europe.
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“This is a step in that direction, and also placing the case in the District of Columbia, which is 95% anti-Trump, putting it in front of a judge with a history of anti-Trump. If the government thinks they have a strong case, they ought to join the defense and agree to move it to West Virginia or Virginia and put it in front of another judge who doesn’t have a long history of anti-Trump attitudes,” Dershowitz said. “So, I don’t believe he can get a fair trial in the District of Columbia.”
Legal experts noted that much of the conduct Smith claimed was criminal in the indictment appeared to be protected by the First Amendment. Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz said that the indictment not only attacked the First Amendment, but also Trump’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
Trump’s top rivals for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, all condemned the indictment.
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