If former President Donald Trump is convicted in the Manhattan hush-money trial, the American legal system will be weaponized and changed forever, according to Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz.
Dershowitz discussed the trial on the Just the News show “No Noise” on Tuesday as closing arguments wrapped up in the case brought against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The former president is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his alleged attempts to cover up an affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied having any affair with Daniels.
“If there’s a conviction here, it will change the justice system forevermore,” Dershowitz said. “It will weaponize the system. It will mean that both sides will try to use the legal system as a way of winning elections.”
Dershowitz, often called “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” added that faith in the American legal system can be restored if Trump is acquitted in the trial.
“If there’s an acquittal, maybe at least we can say the jury system works,” he said. “But if there’s a conviction or even a hung jury, it will show that the prosecution benefits from bringing a case, which is no crime at all.”
Dershowitz also blasted Judge Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal trial who donated to President Joe Biden’s 2020 election campaign.
“I don’t know the reason but it’s obvious that he is not unbiased in this case,” the lawyer said. “He wants a conviction.”
Dershowitz isn’t alone in his concerns about the Manhattan DA’s case against Trump. CNN legal analyst and former defense attorney Randy Zelin said on Tuesday that the prosecution “fell way short” of proving beyond reasonable doubt that Trump is guilty.
“There is reasonable doubt all over this case,” Zelin told CNN. “Where is Keith Schiller? Where is Allen Weisselberg? How did Michael Cohen get away with stealing $30,000? … He’s a fixer. If the plumber comes to my house to fix my leak, I could be home, that doesn’t mean I know how he’s doing it and what it’s taking to be fixed.”
Trump slammed the prosecution and the judge in the hush-money trial on Wednesday morning, writing on Truth Social, “KANGAROO COURT! A CORRUPT AND CONFLICTED JUDGE. RELIANCE ON COUNSEL (ADVISE OF COUNSEL) NOT ALLOWED BY MERCHAN, A FIRST. HIS RULINGS, ON A CASE THAT SHOULD, ACCORDING TO ALL LEGAL SCHOLARS AND EXPERTS, NEVER HAVE BEEN BROUGHT, HAVE MADE THIS A BIDEN PUSHED WITCH HUNT. THERE WAS NO CRIME, EXCEPT FOR THE BUM THAT GOT CAUGHT STEALING FROM ME! IN GOD WE TRUST!”
