Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said Friday on Fox Business that former President Donald Trump will “absolutely not” get a fair trial in New York, calling his indictment the “weakest case” possible.
A Manhattan Grand Jury voted Thursday to indict Trump, nearly two weeks after Trump announced on Truth Social he expected to be arrested.
“We don’t know what is in the indictment. That will probably get leaked, too, by the same person who leaked the fact that there was a vote,” Dershowitz said. “So until we know what is in the indictment, we can’t know for sure, but from everything we know now, this looks like the weakest case in modern history.”
“When you have a Democrat who had run for office on the campaign to get Trump, and he is trying to indict the man who’s about to run against the head of the Democratic Party, namely President Joe Biden, you better have a slam-dunk case,” he continued. “We don’t know whether it’s a slam-dunk case, but from everything we know, this seems like an extraordinarily weak case and an extraordinary abuse of prosecutorial discretion. But let’s keep an open mind, wait and see what the indictment says, but in the meantime there should be an investigation of was there a leak and if so, who did the leaking?”
“Can he get a fair trial in New York?” host Cheryl Casone asked. (RELATED: Pelosi Gets One Key Point Horribly Wrong On Trump Indictment)
“Absolutely not. Do you think any juror or judge will want to come home to his family and friends and say, ‘I am the man who freed Trump and allowed him to run to become next president of the United States?’ What happened to me in Martha’s Vineyard, where I lost all of my friends because I defended Trump in the Senate, is only a small version of what would happen to any judge or juror who acquitted Trump. So, no, this case has to be moved to Staten Island or upstate New York, somewhere where there is a possibility of getting a fair trial. Manhattan is not such a place.”
Trump’s indictment is related to a years-long investigation into an alleged hush money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen allegedly sent $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump. Cohen claims Trump then reimbursed him. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office investigation focused on whether Trump forged business records to hide the alleged payout.