It was not wrong or illegal for House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and his staff to speak with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen before his testimony before Congress, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Friday.
"It's perfectly lawful for (the) Democratic staffs to travel to prepare a witness," Dershowitz told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "That happens every day. I don't know what the fuss is about that."
Dershowitz said he does think the matter needs to be examined carefully, but the staffers are able to suggest areas of interest the members of Congress might have had on Cohen's testimony, without telling him what to say.
"If Republicans were in the House control today and they were calling people who were going to testify against Hillary Clinton or against Democrats they would be sending people to New York to help prepare their testimony," Dershowitz said. "The question is what did they say? There is no lawyer-client privilege. The staffers can actually be called to testify."
Dershowitz on Friday also spoke about the 47-months sentence given to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on Thursday, denying it was a low sentence.
"That's a very harsh sentence for a man of his age," Dershowitz said. "He may very well die in prison. What Judge (T.S.) Ellis did, and I think he was right, he said, 'look, I understand what's going on here. They never had any interest in Manafort.' He was collateral damage. They went after him to get Trump."
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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