Dershowitz to Newsmax: Trump Charges 'Don't Meet the Standard'

The charges former President Donald Trump faces in his latest indictment "don't meet the standard" necessary to form an attack on a leading presidential candidate, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax Wednesday.

"These charges don't meet the standard that ought to be applicable when the attorney general of the United States authorizes prosecution against the man running against his boss," Dershowitz said on "National Report." "That's 'banana republic,' and the case has to be the strongest possible case when you go after the president's chief rival, who is tied with the president in recent polls at 44%."

The four-count indictment, announced Tuesday, also has no "smoking guns," but instead depends completely on Trump's state of mind, Dershowitz added.

"They're going to have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he actually believed that he had lost the election and did all the things he's accused of doing despite that belief. But I've seen no evidence, either in the indictment or from what I've seen, that would have allowed the government to prove that other than by influence or circumstantial evidence," he continued.

However, the indictment "can't seem to prove that he believed" that he lost, even though it says that "he should have known that he lost because people told him he lost," said Dershowitz.

He added that the indictment has the potential of violating Americans' rights to vote for the candidate of their choice.

"I voted against Trump twice," he said. "I have a constitutional right to vote against him a third time. You have a constitutional right to vote for or against him, and that shouldn't be denied by prosecutors or by [Trump's] political opponents."

Meanwhile, Trump is also facing a potential indictment in Georgia, and has been indicted in New York City and Florida as well as Tuesday's charges in Washington, D.C. However, Dershowitz said he thinks it's "very unlikely" the former president will end up behind bars.

"I don't think the Supreme Court will ever sustain the New York indictment, which is a joke," he said. "I don't think they will sustain most of the charges in this indictment. The Georgia indictment, which is probably forthcoming, is based on an ambiguous phone call where he said, 'Find votes.' He didn't say manufacture them. He said to find them."

The Florida case, involving documents kept at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, is the strongest case against Trump, "but it's not a jail time case," he continued, noting that others, like President Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Mike Pence, and others also had documents, but none of them ended up in jail.

"Can you imagine a situation where he gets jail time and he was forced to surrender, and then he wins the presidency and he has to serve from not the Oval Office, but the 'Iron Bar Office'?" Dershowitz said. "You couldn't even get a novel published saying that. It seems so absurd. Of course, the framers never considered the possibility that you have a president running for office who is under indictment or is actually serving time."

Trump's Florida case is scheduled to go to trial in May, and Dershowitz, appearing later in the day on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now," said that case is the "strongest case on the law and facts," but the weakest based on the seriousness of the alleged crime.

"It's the kind of crime that has been committed by many, many former officeholders, including the current president of the United States," he said. "It's the strongest case in terms of evidence because it has that one smoking gun where you have the videotape of him showing a piece of evidence, which the government claims it can prove was classified."

The latest indictment, though, "seems to be based on stretching the law and speculating about the fact. [It's a] very, very weak case under a strong potential indictment," said Dershowitz. "If I were the attorney general, I would not have authorized any of these cases against the man who's running against your boss."

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