Famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz made a case Sunday for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to recuse himself from the Russia investigation on MSNBC.
The Harvard law professor emeritus brought up Rosenstein as a pivot away from a question host Kasie Hunt asked about whether any Supreme Court candidate that President Trump might nominate Monday should recuse him or herself from the Russia inquiry.
“I don’t think so,” Dershowitz began in response to the question, noting that the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recused himself but “very, very rarely” did so. “Just because he was nominated by the president would not be ground for recusal. Remember the courts have also said you would have a duty to sit unless you are recused,” he added.
.@AlanDersh calls for Rod Rosenstein’s recusal from the Mueller investigation pic.twitter.com/OPdp4fyOb8
— Kasie DC (@KasieDC) July 9, 2018
[Also read: Rod Rosenstein asks DOJ inspector general to review possible Trump campaign infiltration]
Dershowitz then singled out Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and if Trump attempted to obstruct the inquiry.
“How he could be conducting an investigation in which he is the key, major, central witness just defies any logic,” Dershowitz emphasized. “I taught legal ethics for over 25 years, I would think that would be the most basic thing. You can’t be both a prosecutor and a potential witness in a leading major case like this.”
Dershowitz, who has opposed some of Trump’s policies and was a contributor to 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, has said as much about Rosenstein previously, but this latest interview on the left-leaning network comes as the lawyer claims to be getting the cold-shoulder treatment from his friends in Martha’s Vineyard for defending Trump’s “civil liberties.” He even suggested last week that a woman at a recent party in Martha’s Vineyard fantasized about stabbing him through the heart over his defense of Trump.
If Clinton were president, Dershowitz quipped that he would be the “hero of Martha’s Vineyard.”
Dershowitz: If I were Clinton’s lawyer I’d be “hero of Martha’s Vineyard” pic.twitter.com/uHwLon7llI
— Kasie DC (@KasieDC) July 9, 2018
The appearance on MSNBC also follows Dershowitz challenging “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough on Thursday to invite him on his show after Scarborough suggested that Dershowitz deserved the backlash he was receiving.
Dershowitz said Sunday that Trump should not fire Rosenstein, but his lawyers would be within their authority to make a motion to the court to recuse him as a potential witness.
“The only way he doesn’t recuse himself is if they’ve already decided the president cannot obstruct justice for simply firing somebody he had the right to fire regardless of what his motive may have been,” he added.
He also said he doesn’t believe Mueller is biased, calling him a “very decent person.” That was a stark contrast to Rudy Giuliani, who is part of Trump’s legal team, calling Mueller’s operation the “most corrupt investigation I have ever seen” earlier in the day on ABC.
Trump has long called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt.”
