Dershowitz Predicts ‘Bad’ and ‘Fast’ Convictions for Trump

Dershowitz Predicts ‘Bad’ and ‘Fast’ Convictions for Trump
Law professor Alan Dershowitz is seen at the White House in Washington, DC on Jan. 28, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Catherine Yang
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Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor, says convictions against former President Donald Trump will come quick, before the elections, in an attempt to quagmire his chance for presidency.

Yet, the poorly constructed legal cases will fall apart on appeal, he added, but only after the elections.

Mr. Dershowitz had defended President Trump during his impeachment despite being neither a supporter of the president nor a Republican. After witnessing what he believed was a collapse in the rule of law, he authored “Get Trump,” predicting the “unremitting efforts” his political opponents would use to take him down before the 2024 elections.

And those predictions have come true, Mr. Dershowitz said Tuesday in an appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast.

“It’s Alice in Wonderland—verdict first, execution, and then trial. That’s what we’re having here. And it’s such an undercutting of our Constitution. I predicted this all in ‘Get Trump,’” he said.

“And I predict there’ll be some convictions. I think the strategy is to get bad convictions, but to get them fast in New York, in Florida, in Washington, and in Fulton County, then they’ll be reversed on appeal, but they’ll be reversed on appeal after the election,” Mr. Dershowitz said.

“That’s why everybody’s rushing to get these cases tried.”

The latest indictment—former President Trump’s fourth—took place this week, on Aug. 14, in Fulton County, Georgia. The grand jury case prosecuted by District Attorney Fani Willis returned 13 counts against former President Trump and 41 counts total against him and 18 other conspirators. All were charged with racketeering.

An error on Monday was perhaps the most obvious sign so far that these four convictions have been a sham, according to Mr. Dershowitz.

While the grand jury was still hearing witness testimonies, the clerk’s office had filed online a two-page document showing 13 charges against President Trump, which was later removed without explanation. Those 13 charges later exactly matched the actual charges against President Trump.

Ms. Willis refused to comment on the document during a press conference and did not respond to additional requests for comment from The Epoch Times. The clerk’s office, which generally would not have insider information from the prosecution during a grand jury trial, issued a statement that it was a “fictitious document” and should not be “considered official filings.”

“The fact that they were willing to put the indictment on the website before the grand jurors voted proved something that any of us who have had experience in criminal law know—the grand jury is meaningless,” Mr. Dershowitz said.

“There are 23 or whatever number it is, chairs that the prosecution moves around. If the prosecutor wants an indictment, she gets an indictment. So nobody should say, ‘Oh, my God. A grand jury, 23 people looked at the evidence and they said there was enough to indict!’” he said.

“Ignore it. It’s nonsense. The grand jury didn’t decide anything. They rubber stamped something that the prosecutor put before them.”

“And the best evidence is the prosecutor was so confident she was willing to put it on her website even before the vote took place,” he added.

Mr. Dershowitz explained that speed is paramount to the strategy of former President Trump’s opponents.

“We now know that they want it tried within six months in Georgia. They want a trial in January in Washington, D.C. They want a trial in May in Florida. And New York has been willing to put it off, but they’re going to get on the bandwagon too,” he said. “The whole ‘Get Trump’ approach is to get him before the election, convict him before the election. Then he wins on appeal? All right. That’s tomorrow’s news.”

Moving the Case to Federal Court

On Tuesday, Mark Meadows, former chief of staff for President Trump, filed a motion to have his case removed to federal court.

Others indicted are expected to do the same.

“Mr. Meadows is entitled to remove this action to federal court because the charges against him plausibly give rise to a federal defense based on his role at all relevant times as the White House Chief of Staff to the President of the United States,” an attorney for Mr. Meadows wrote in a filing Tuesday.

“This is precisely the kind of state interference in a federal official’s duties that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits, and that the removal statute shields against.”

Mr. Meadows’s lawyers wrote in the filing that moving the case would prevent the need to defend it on two fronts. Then, at a “later date,” they plan to seek to dismiss the charges entirely.