If former President Donald Trump is indicted, he’ll probably be convicted but an appeal would likely lead to the conviction being thrown out, legal expert Alan Dershowitz said on March 18.
“I don’t think there will be a motion to dismiss that succeeds. This is New York justice. In New York, of course you can indict a ham sandwich. But in New York, you can also convict a ham sandwich because the jury pool will be very much against Trump and the judges will be very much against Trump,” Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said during an appearance on Fox News.
“So, if I were him, I would be worried today. He’ll probably ultimately win on appeal, but do judges today have the courage … to do something favorable to Trump in a city which overwhelmingly despises Trump? That’s what’s wrong with this justice system.”
Trump is reportedly set to face an indictment for a payment made to Stormy Daniels, an adult actress who has made the contested claim that he had an affair with her. The payment was made by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, and Trump reimbursed the lawyer. Trump has said the allegations were “debunked.”
Dershowitz, who was part of Trump’s impeachment defense team in 2020, agreed. “There is no crime here,” he said.
‘Used His Own Money’
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in a statement that most campaign finance violations involve spending other people’s money illegally or accepting money that you should not.
“Trump did neither. He used his own money to resolve a private dispute, irrespective of any campaign. The impending indictment is based on an untested, tortured legal theory. This is an absurd abuse of the criminal process in our politics. It must be seen for the partisan pathetic ploy it is,” Gaetz, a Trump supporter, said.
“News of a possible indictment against President Trump is just ANOTHER example of the Left’s derangement,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) added.
“This is a TOTAL SHAM involving a weak case… from years ago… with questionable witnesses,” he said on Twitter.
Rudy Giuliani, another former Trump lawyer, said on Newsmax that the case would be a violation of due process and would eventually be dismissed if brought.
“Prosecutors have come out against this, and said, ‘Hey, don’t do this: This will get him elected president,’” Giuliani said. “This is such a miscarriage of justice, it’ll get him elected president.”
Other Reactions
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said an indictment wouldn’t change his support of Trump.
“Hell no,” Vance said on Twitter. “A politically motivated prosecution makes the argument for Trump stronger. We simply don’t have a real country if justice depends on politics.”
An indictment would be “outrageous if true,” Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) said. “The leftist Manhattan DA resembles Stalin’s secret police attacking only Republicans and letting crime explode. Harassing President Trump to distract from their own failures is the left’s plan.”
But while many Republicans defended Trump and cast the potential looming charge as an abuse of power, Democrats said they would support an indictment.
“Proving a misdemeanor here, not that hard. Falsifying business records, the evidence there is probably pretty strong. The trickier case is going to be proving the felony. In order to prove the felony, you have to prove intent to conceal,” Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-N.C.), a former prosecutor, said on Fox.
“One of the key aspects of the DA’s case is not only do we have evidence that Michael Cohen was reimbursed for that, but that the reimbursement happened in phases. Speaks to intent,” he added.
“I applaud the Manhattan DA if he is actually bringing these charges, because we know, number one, the courage that it takes to go after this particular character, and number two, we also know that there will be a heightened level of scrutiny on this kind of case,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said on MSNBC. “And so we know that if you decide to actually indict a former president, you actually are coming with a pretty strong case.”
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said on the channel that she’s constantly asked by people when Trump will be arrested.
“I have never seen, most people have never seen or believed, we would have a president who has acted in the way that he has,” she said, adding later: “This president conducted himself in a way that he does not deserve not to be arrested. He should be arrested. He should be indicted.”
Discussing Within White House
While neither the White House nor President Joe Biden has commented on the reported indictment, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said they’re talking about it.
“I’m sure they’re discussing in the White House among the president’s political advisers right now … ‘how do you campaign, and keep this campaign about the American people and the Biden presidency and his accomplishments and not about Donald Trump,’” Psaki said on NBC.
Biden has not launched a reelection bid but had repeatedly suggested he’s going to run.
“It’s not about the president going out and explaining Trump’s legal woes and whether he’s guilty or not guilty or should be convicted,” Psaki, who now works for NBC, said. “It is about President Biden staying on the track of communicating what he’s doing for the public.”
Democrats hate Trump because he loves America. They do not. They are anxious for our demise.
Hey, you corrupt Dems. Just keep on keeping on. You are getting him elected. Thank you.
trump built the Trump Tower in NYC. Trump is the most famous American all over the world. Losers ( in my vocabulary the definition of a loser is someone who has sold his soul to the Deep State, a terrorist, a drug dealer,a criminal, a pedophile etc. ) . are terribly jealous of him. They are also extremely scared of him, because he is a winner….. Law and Jesus are behind him. He wwin big.
Thank you Mr. Derschowitz for enlightening us about American Court procedures. I am a Turkish Lawyer but I am having terrible difficulty in following American Legal System.
God Bless Trump, God Bless real America….. not the fake America….
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON Paid Paula Jones $850,000 To Shut Up About Sexual Harassment Charges While He Was In Middle Of Impeachment Hearings For Affair With 19-Yr-Old Intern…Why Was He Never Arrested?
Yesterday, news broke that President Donald Trump could be indicted as soon as next week as a result of charges stemming from payments made to Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair between her and Trump quiet. Only hours ago, President Trump announced on his Truth Social account that he would be arrested on Tuesday.
Do you remember when former President Bill Clinton paid Paula Jones $850,000 to go away? Do you remember the FBI raiding his lawyer’s office? Well, that’s because the former happened and the latter did not.
In 1994, a former law clerk, Paula Jones, filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Little Rock, Arkansas, against President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment and defamation while he was the governor of Arkansas. In her suit, Jones asked for $700,000 in damages.
https://100percentfedup.com/president-bill-clinton-paid-paula-jones-850000-to-shut-up-about-sexual-harassment-charges-while-he-was-in-middle-of-impeachment-hearings-for-affair-with-19-yr-old-intern-why-was-he-never-arrested/
Doesn’t anyone WONDER about the Congressional Budget Office’s ‘Special Fund’ for Congressmembers ‘accused of sexual crimes’, that then We The People must PAY FOR!!! AND, said Fund is ‘Classified’, meaning We The People have NO RIGHT to KNOW ANY of the facts pertaining to this ‘fund’, where $ goes, how much $ is spent, ‘who’ has ‘required’ such assistance (some of them millionaires???)
So, it’s ENTIRELY POSSIBLE that SOME members of Congress/Senate who HAVE received these mony handouts to ‘save their butts’ would ALSO run for Congress/Senate AGAIN, or President even, and WE The People would NEVER KNOW nor be allowed to be privy to the information that our Congress, with OUR MONEY, has been paying who knows for ‘how many times’ large monetary payments to protect and shield THIS (or ANY) Congressman or woman’ in the same way that Trump may have done with his own $$$ through his Atty. legally, except that in only Trump’s case, it’s all coming out in the Media, and he has no ‘right to privacy’ or any other ‘Right’ that would protect HIM in the same way our Congressmen/women are being protected EVERY DAY, from their purported Crimes that we cannot even be appraised of!!!
And it’s even POSSIBLE that Biden may have been in this category, where you and I paid tax money into the ‘Fund’ that sent $$$ to HIS accuser/s, maybe more than once or twice, $$$ which WE The People cannot KNOW about, and WE The People would NEVER KNOW about that! But Trump is being treated entirely differently!!! than members of Congress voted for themselves that they be treated. And The People see this and weep for our Nation.
And wouldn’t the necessity of Congressmen/women to seek ‘help’ from the Congressional Fund speak to the ‘intent’ to keep this ‘hush-hush’ from the Public??? the thing that in this case against Trump, the Dem prosecutor is TRYING hard to make a Felony that he may have paid off an accuser using his OWN MONEY, not even Taxpayer Money??? and the thing has ALREADY been made TOTALLY PUBLIC, and was ALREADY debunked several yrs ago when it came up in 2020???
Yet our Congressmen/women HAVE the privilege of ‘privacy’ from their accusers, and the Govt’s. ‘deep pockets’ (you and me…) PAY TO HAVE THE DEMAND go away, and nobody sees it!!! and nobody can even ‘find out’ about it! I don’t get it.. One (a Republican) is guilty of a Felony. While another, a member of our Congress, is totally deemed ‘not even to have been accused’, even though it MAY happen (and has…) many times during his tenure – The People PAY FOR IT. And we never are told ANYthing about it! And HE could run for President, and we STILL would never know a thing!
How is this Right, that THAT Congressman possibly turned President would then turn around and cause another human being (of another Party) in the same situation, to be deemed a Felon for the same thing? while the Congressman/President would be allowed to be held incognito forever, and NEVER held to account or accountability? when BOTH are the same? except that the Republican DIDN’T use any Taxpayer Funds to pay off his accuser, while the Congressman DID. So WHO should be held to MORE accountability – Congressmen, or ordinary citizens???
I think it’s pretty obvious in that scenario that Congressmen should be held ABOVE the General Public because they SERVE the General Public and are PAID to be Honorary Citizens, not on the Public Dole to be ‘bailed out’ by Taxpayers when accusers come calling and demanding. Especially when MANY of our Congressmen and women somehow become Millionaires while in Office, when they started out as just nominal citizens with government paychecks. Hmmmmm…