Alan Dershowitz believes the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's 2020 election case set a "terrible precedent" by dismissing his presidential immunity claims.
Joining Newsmax's "The Chris Salcedo Show" on Monday, the Harvard Law professor emeritus slammed Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the federal District Court in Washington, D.C., for the controversial ruling days before.
Dershowitz specifically took issue with the argument, as voiced in a Saturday article by two CNN reporters, that you can separate the president's private capacity from his public capacity while in office.
"The president has no private life," Dershowitz said. "Everything he does – from the minute he gets up in the morning to the minute he goes to sleep, and in the middle of the night – he's acting as president.
"He is president 24/7 for his term in office, and I think that's been the general understanding. Obviously, what happened on Jan. 6 [2021] was within the scope of his presidency."
For this reason, Dershowitz contends that all of a president's actions, whether Trump or someone else, "are partially political, partially presidential."
"The idea that a court can parse the distinction and totally eliminate any kind of immunity is – it is breathtaking, and it will be a terrible precedent for the future," he determined.
Chutkan primarily saw a different reason for throwing out Trump's immunity claims in the Friday legal filing, holding that he can be charged once he leaves office for crimes committed when he was there.
"Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass," Chutkan said in the 48-page document.
Trump "may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office," she added.
The case in question was brought up by Department of Justice special counsel John L. "Jack" Smith's office in August and surrounds claims that he and six others conspired to overturn the 2020 election.
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Luca Cacciatore ✉
Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics.