Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz feels “sympathy” for former FBI agent Peter Strzok, but said the appearance of his anti-Trump bias was enough to get him fired.
“We don’t know if there is more to come. He made one serious mistake. He had a very distinguished career. I have personal sympathy for him,” Dershowitz said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday. (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Pushes For FISA Applications To Be Made Public)
“He should have recused himself,” he added. “Once he sent those messages that didn’t only say ‘I don’t like Trump but I’m going to stop him, we need an insurance policy,’ that created at least the impression of bias.”
Dershowitz claimed the mere appearance of bias against the president was enough to warrant his dismissal and said Strzok should have recused himself from the investigation from the beginning.
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“Whether he could control that bias and not have it influence his decisions as he testified to, nobody knows how to psychoanalyze an individual like that,” he said. “All we know is it appears that he could have been biased and that’s what the inspector general found. That the appearance of bias was enough. So he should have recused himself. He’s a professional. And his failure to recuse himself I think is what led to his firing.”
Dershowitz said deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein should have also recused himself from the Russia probe, to avoid creating a conflict of interest.
“Of course, that raises the question why hasn’t Rod Rosenstein recused himself? He also creates the impression of bias. Not again from personal feelings, but because he’s a witness in the case,” Dershowitz concluded. “He’s the main witness in the case. You can’t be the main prosecutor and the main witness in the same case. That creates an obvious conflict of interest.”
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