This week’s perjury accusations against key figures in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia show “the extraordinary weakness” of the Mueller probe. That’s according to Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School professor emeritus, who appeared on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Friday night.
Although the original purpose of the Mueller probe was to discern whether or not President Donald Trump or any of his campaign officials colluded with Russians to sway the presidential election in his favor against Democrat Hillary Clinton, the investigation has focused instead on allegations of obstruction of justice by Trump, on perjury by others — and on the president’s prior business interests.
Trump has responded to Mueller’s written questions, and now Mueller’s probe is winding down.
But Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress in response to Mueller’s court charge. Cohen admitted he lied about his business dealings with Russia and the Trump Organization during Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Earlier in the week, Mueller’s team accused embattled former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of repeatedly lying to them. And on Friday, Mueller’s team revealed that it’s considering whether or not to retry Manafort with new charges, including obstruction of justice.
Many mainstream media types practically salivated over the week’s dramatic events as they began speculating about whether Trump would serve out his full first term in office.
Dershowitz told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that this week’s Mueller drama shows that “the vast majority of crimes are things that happened after he became special counsel, not before.”
“The president should be concerned because he’s not going to get an objective, neutral, nuanced report from Mueller. Mueller is going to try to create a narrative that takes all these perjury and lying charges, and tries to weave them into something against the president,” Dershowitz warned.
“But I think this all shows the extraordinary weakness of the Mueller investigation,” Dershowitz added. “He was appointed to uncover crimes that had already occurred. Instead, he helped foment crimes by creating these perjury traps, having people fall into them, and then trying to flip them as witnesses.”
Related: ‘Hyperventilating’ Media Are Obsessed by Cohen Plea Deal, Observes WSJ Editorial Board
Dershowitz also said it’s important that Mueller avoid releasing his final report publicly unless Trump’s legal team “has had an opportunity to review it, respond to it and issue their report simultaneously.”
Otherwise, the “presumption of innocence” for Trump could be destroyed.
The Harvard professor emeritus also blasted the “Mueller fans” who have forgotten “basic core civil liberties” in their “haste to try to find anything on Trump.”
“You have to have the two reports issued simultaneously. Let the American public judge whether or not their report … really establishes crimes, impeachable offenses or any of the other things that Mueller may be looking for,” Dershowitz said.
“And I have a high level of suspicion that in the end, we’re going to see a lot of indictments for perjury and lying, a lot of indictments for financial fraud against other people, but we’re not going to ultimately see any crimes directed against the president of the United States,” he said.
The Harvard professor emeritus also blasted the “Mueller fans” who have forgotten “basic core civil liberties” in their “haste to try to find anything on Trump.”
Watch Dershowitz’s interview in the video below:
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