Dershowitz: Flynn Plea Is ‘A Show of Weakness’ for Mueller

On Saturday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz argued that former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea is a “show of weakness” for Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Dershowitz said, “Well, the last thing any prosecutor wants to do is to have to indict his primary witness for lying. Because if you indict your witness for lying, it really means he’s not useful as a witness, he has no credibility. I’m sure the prosecutor was trying to indict him for some scheme or conspiracy that involved other people in the White House, but there is nothing there, and he had to, finally come down and indict him for lying, which makes him a useless witness. So, this is not a show of strength by the prosecutor. It’s a show of weakness. It’s a show that they really have nothing on anybody above of Flynn and that Flynn made the terrible mistake about lying about something he could have told truth about. Because the two things he lied about were perfectly lawful and perfectly proper for somebody to do during the transition. And so, I think it really reflects a weakness, not a strength in Mueller’s prosecution.”

He added, “Now, they still may be able to use him to lead to other witnesses or to get documentary evidence or to give them leads, but he’s no good as witness. Because he’s obviously sold himself to protect his own son, and he’s prepared not only to sing, but perhaps even to compose and [unintelligible] to exaggerate if he thinks that will get him a better deal from the prosecutor. So, if I’m a defense lawyer, I have no trouble destroying his credibility on the witness stand.”

Dershowitz concluded Mueller is “going on the domino theory, one domino at the time. You go for the lowest-hanging fruit. You indict people for lying to the FBI, failing to fill out the proper forms. These are forms of essentially political jaywalking, then you squeeze them and you hope that maybe they’ll give you information that would lead to somebody higher up. But in the end, it’s hope over reality. So, I would not say this is a day for celebrating for the prosecution in the Mueller office.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett