Legal expert Alan Dershowitz argued Thursday on Newsmax that the Mar-a-Lago classified document case against former President Donald Trump fails to meet two key standards.
On "The Record with Greta Van Susteren," Dershowitz argued that — whichever way Trump adviser Kash Patel's potential testimony plays out — the case fails to meet Hillary Clinton's email server or former President Richard Nixon's Watergate standard.
"The Clinton standard is, Why are you going after him [Trump] for improper use of classified or other material when you didn't go after Clinton?" Dershowitz asked. "And second, the only way that they ever went after Nixon is when Republicans came and said to Nixon, 'You have to leave.'
"And until and unless some Republicans indicate that Trump has crossed the line into criminality, I just don't think there's going to be an indictment on this."
His comments follow Patel being granted immunity by the Justice Department in exchange for testimony on if Trump declassified the files obtained during the Federal Bureau of Investigation's raid earlier this year, The New York Times reported.
Last month, Patel invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in front of Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in Washington, D.C., detailing that he would only testify through immunity.
"The issue is, was he talking to the president in an official capacity?" Dershowitz queried, noting that executive privilege complicates things. "Does the president have a claim of immunity? Can the new, current president waive the old president's claims of immunity?"
"So, this is not a fait accompli that he's necessarily going to testify. And we also don't know whether he will testify because the one thing you don't get immunity for is perjury," he added.
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