Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Breitbart News Tonight during an interview with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak on Monday that President Donald Trump has more to fear from the investigation of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, than the Robert Mueller-led operation.
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Mansour asked Dershowitz, “It seems as if [the New York investigation] might be much more troublesome to President Trump in long run than any Mueller investigation which seems to be kind of winding down, but if they open up all of Michael Cohen’s files, his recordings, doesn’t that give them the ability to start fishing through the Trump Organization — old and past business deals — and digging up things there that could be problematic considering some of the people that they’ve been in business with have been kind of shady at times?”
Dershowitz replied, “About two months ago, I said and wrote that Trump doesn’t have anything to worry about, particularly on the Mueller investigation. There’s no evidence of collusion that I’ve seen. Obstruction of justice can’t be, in my view, directed against the president for simply exercising his constitutional authority.”
Dershowitz recalled the Ken Starr-led three-year investigation of Bill Clinton. He said, I always thought that the New York potential was greater, or the investigation of his business and his private life would be raising more questions, much like it did with President Clinton: Whitewater and then Paula Jones and then, ultimately, to the blue dress. I do think he has much more to worry about [with] his private lawyer.”
Dershowitz added, “Now I have no reason to believe he’s ever done anything wrong in his business life. I don’t want to presume that. I believe strongly in the presumption of innocence, but if he did, there would be no constitutional protection like there would be under Article II for obstruction of justice or collusion or any of the other things that relate to his authority as either president-elect or President of the United States.”
Dershowitz recommended that Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdraw his recusal from the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump’s associates, at least as far as Cohen is concerned.
Dershowitz stated, “Sometimes, you should un-recuse yourself, and I think Attorney General Sessions should un-recuse himself when it comes to the New York investigation because it’s not part of the Russia investigation. He’s not a witness or a potential subject there. He’s the Attorney General of the United States. He ought to be in charge of supervising the New York investigation, not [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein.”
Pollak asked Dershowitz if such an un-recusal from Sessions would lead to a pursuit of obstruction of justice charges against President Trump.
Dershowitz replied, “[Sessions] wouldn’t try to stop [the New York investigation]. He’d play the same role, presumably, that Rosenstein is playing. He’d be the one to sign off on the search warrant. He’d be the one to be supervising the U.S. attorney as the Attorney General of the United States always does. It’s just that he would replace Rosenstein. Rosenstein isn’t stopping the investigation. Presumably, neither would [Sessions], but he’d be the one in charge. There’s no reason why he should be recused from the New York investigation, unless the New York investigation is really just an extension of Mueller’s investigation, in which case, that raises other problems.”
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