New York Attorney General Letitia James' "bigoted" report on allegations against Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo is merely a "political" attack intended for impeachment and not criminal charges, according to legal expert Alan Dershowitz on Newsmax.
"I don't think the report is credible: It doesn't involve cross examination; many of the people who were investigated were not put under oath; there were no transcripts," Dershowitz told "Saturday Report." "Nobody should take as gospel this one-sided investigation. Everybody has the right to due process to confront, to cross examine.
"And until and unless that's done, we don't accept in America what the attorney general [of New York] said in her bigoted statement: Namely, we must believe all women. Why? We must believe, well, Jews. We must believe all Blacks. We must believe all Native Americans. You cannot make statements like 'you must believe all women' and expect to be taken seriously as the attorney general of New York. Shame on her for her bigotry."
Dershowitz denounced the attack on Cuomo as "all political," and forcing a rush to seek criminal investigations so local prosecutors do not look weak amid the firestorm.
"It's all political," he told host Carl Higbie. "Every district attorney wants to hop on the bandwagon. None of them wants to be run against by somebody who said, 'my God, the D.A. didn't do anything about Gov. Cuomo. So, it's all, all political."
Criminal charges are "theoretically possible," Dershowitz added, but the allegation of unnamed woman who alleged sexual assault of having her breasts fondled by the governor is criminal, but it is "very unlikely" it will ultimately come to real charges.
"It would be a very, very uphill battle to try to imprison the governor," Dershowitz said. "Impeachment is different – and remember, people have to understand this – criteria for impeachment of the governor of New York is very different from the criteria for impeachment of a president. For the president, it requires criminal type behavior: treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. I argued that in the Senate successfully.
"In New York, it really is malfeasance in office – very broad terms. Exactly the terms that the United States Constitution rejected and that the Democrats wanted to hoist on the United States during the Trump impeachment.
"So impeachment is an easy road, compared to federal, but state criminal prosecution would be very difficult, and I don't think it will happen."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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