Saturday, during an appearance on Newsmax TV, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz warned former Trump adviser Peter Navarro’s arrest could impact American democracy.
Dershowitz told Newsmax TV’s “The Count” Navarro’s indictment was a “real scandal” given no judicial order was given for Navarro to testify that resolved his claim of executive privilege.
If it stands, Dershowitz said Republicans could use it in the same way their Democrat counterparts have used it against Biden administration officials.
“He has invoked a privilege,” Dershowitz explained. “It’s as if somebody was called to testify about what he told his priest or his doctor or his lawyer, and he invokes the privilege and immediately gets indicted, instead of the government going before a court and the judge rules whether or not the privilege applies. If you rule the privilege doesn’t apply and order him to testify, then he can be held in contempt.”
“But you cannot constitutionally be held in contempt of Congress without a judicial order,” he continued. “And if the shoe was on the other foot, and it will be on the other foot if the Republicans gained control of Congress or the Senate, they will use this precedent and go after Biden administration officials and indict them if they refused to disclose information. This is dangerous to democracy, dangerous through the rule of law, and dangerous to the concept of privilege, whether it be a priest privilege or a doctor, privileged lawyer privilege or executive privilege — an extremely dangerous case. And I’m shocked that the Justice Department brought it without there being a judicial determination that he was compelled to testify.”
(h/t Newsmax)
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