Retired Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz Saturday applauded a federal judge in Virginia for calling the case against President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort a ploy for information for impeachment, and complained that special counsel Robert Mueller and federal investigators are treating the president "like a Mafia boss."
"I'm thrilled with what he said, because I've been saying it now for 25 years and certainly since this Trump thing began," Dershowitz told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" about comments made in court by Judge T.S. Ellis III, a Ronald Reagan appointee. "He even used my phrase. He said 'they may not only sing, they may compose [evidence].'"
He added that "every criminal defense lawyer, prosecutors" know that such actions are often taken in the ways prosecutors operate, mainly in "Mafia cases and mob cases and terrorist cases."
"You go after the low-hanging fruit, you find vulnerable people and charge them with a technical crime," said Dershowitz. "Sometimes you stretch the law to charge them with a crime and then you squeeze them and you tell them they're going to jail for 20 years, unless they testify against Mr. Big. This time Mr. Big is sitting in the Oval Office."
He also noted that fired FBI Director James Comey wrote in his recent memoir that Trump is "like a Mafia boss," but now "Comey and Mueller are treating Trump as if he were a Mafia boss, trying to find the soldiers, squeeze them, threaten them, and maybe they'll sing."
Dershowitz said he's been called names ranging from liar to conspiracy theorist about his opinion on the topic, and "finally we get a judge who absolutely validates this and blows the whistle on the special counsel."
However, Ellis did not rule on the case, even though it's enough to raise serious issues, Dershowitz pointed out.
"It's not enough to throw out the indictment," said Dershowitz. "It will depend on what the special prosecutor can produce. It really is a stretch to go back to 2005. Talk about conspiracy theories. These guys must have been planning this for the last 18 years and they were going to get money from the bank? It's such a stretch."
Meanwhile, Dershowitz said he believes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be recused from the case, as he is the "key witness" in testifying why Trump fired James Comey as FBI director.
Dershowitz said he has the same opinion about former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
"They created a crime of lying to prosecutors in order to get him to flip," said Dershowitz.
He said he also does not know if Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen committed any crimes, but he does believe that investigators "wouldn't have been looking at him unless he was Trump's lawyer."
Having such connections, said Dershowitz, is "the worst place to be in the world, if they're trying to get somebody, one of his associates, lawyers, friends, because they're coming after you."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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