Steve Bannon has an uphill climb in his trial on charges of defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, because there is not a "real chance" that anyone connected with former President Donald Trump can get a fair trial in Democrat-controlled Washington, D.C., Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax Monday.
"I wouldn't want to be Steve Bannon today in front of a jury in the District of Columbia," Dershowitz said on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now" about the former Trump strategist. "I don't think there's any real chance that a Trump supporter can get a fair trial today in the District of Columbia, which is what, 80% Democrat and probably 80% hating Trump, his enablers, or anybody like him."
This means Bannon must focus his case, in which jury selection started Monday, on the legal issues and look forward to a reversal in an appellate court, said Dershowitz, conceding that it is "always possible a juror or two might hang."
Bannon does have a "great lawyer, David Schoen, one of the great lawyers in America today," said Dershowitz. "He's a Democrat, but like me he stands for justice and stands for bipartisan or nonpartisan justice, so he's going to have a great defense. Nobody could give him a better defense. But I don't think Jesus, Mohammed, Abraham Lincoln, or Daniel Webster could win the case in the District of Columbia if they were anybody associated with Trump."
Dershowitz also on Monday talked about his 50th book, "The Price of Principle: Why Integrity Is Worth the Consequences," reiterating that he has been harassed in his hometown of Martha's Vineyard for defending Trump through the use of the Constitution.
He also told Newsmax he's considering a lawsuit against the public library at Martha's Vineyard for blackballing him from giving a speech.
"For 20 years, I was the major speaker," said Dershowitz. "The Hebrew Center, the synagogue, won't allow me to speak; the community center won't allow me to speak."
To add insult to injury, Dershowitz said that a few nights ago, there was an event to raise money for Jewish Democrats, but he was "disinvited."
"Am I not Jewish enough?" he said. "Am I not Democrat enough? I probably have a better record of supporting Jewish causes and Democrat causes than anybody else on Martha's Vineyard, but I was expressly disinvited to come to that event. Why?
"As punishment, as cancelation for having the chutzpah to have defended the president of the United States against an unconstitutional impeachment."
Dershowitz said he does not care about not being invited to parties, but he does care about people at Martha's Vineyard who want to hear him speak "and they're being denied the right to hear me."
Libraries, he added, get government funding and "can't cancel speakers based on partisan considerations. Let's see what the Supreme Court says about that."
But, he said if he'd written a book against impeaching Hillary Clinton, had she been elected, "I would be the most invited person. I would be loved."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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