Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz recommended that President Trump press the Justice Department to allow his team to release a rebuttal before special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report is released.
Appearing on Fox News, Dershowitz argued that Mueller’s top witnesses are liars who have not undergone cross-examination, and therefore Americans won’t be able to accurately judge the report’s findings.
“It’s devastating only if it’s unrebutted,” Dershowitz said, referring to his prior assessment about Mueller’s final report. “Which is why it is absolutely essential for the president’s team to demand that the Justice Department not allow the release of the Mueller report until they’ve had a chance to review it and rebut it.”
Dershowitz, who has been critical of Mueller’s probe, has previously said he does not think the special counsel’s conclusions after the more than year-long Russia inquiry would lead to criminal repercussions for Trump.
Mueller’s inquiry is being overseen now by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who has been critical of the probe in the past. Whitaker reportedly has pledged not to interfere with the investigation, but Democrats and other critics remain concerned.
Dershowitz’s comments Thursday came hours after Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, reached a plea deal with Mueller that revealed negotiations about building a Trump Tower in Moscow occurred well into the 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen “knowingly and willfully made a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement and representation” to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the real estate project, according to a nine-page filing by federal prosecutors on the special counsel’s team.
Dershowitz lamented earlier in the interview how Mueller is running his investigation “case after case, being built against people simply for lying.”
“These are not crimes that occurred before the special prosecutor came to office,” Dershowitz said. “He is supposed to have a covered crimes that occurred in the past. Instead he is facilitating and incentivizing the crimes by creating these perjury traps. Virtually all of his indictments and pleas come from people who he got to lie in front of investigators by setting perjury traps.”
