Alan Dershowitz said the Department of Justice's decision to issue indictments against 12 Russians ahead of President Donald Trump's summit in Finland was a "serious blunder" and "embarrassing" to the president.
A guest on conservative host Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Dershowitz said the timing of the indictments potentially influenced foreign policy, an unnecessary misstep by the DOJ, especially given that these were unenforceable show indictments.
"I think it was a terrible mistake for the Department of Justice to issue that indictment on the eve of a foreign policy trip. The Justice Department is not supposed to be intruding on the foreign policy of the United States. They should have on their own held off," Dershowitz told Hewitt.
"Second, it’s a show indictment. It’s not a real indictment. Nobody expects that these Russians will be extradited by Putin," Dershowitz said.
And DOJ, of all entities, should have learned its lesson about bad timing in 2016, Dershowitz said.
"The issue is timing. You know, the Justice Department policy say you don’t issue indictments just before an election, because you’re not supposed to be influencing policy," Dershowitz said.
"And embarrassing the president by issuing these indictments before he meets Putin was a serious blunder. The Justice Department should not have done that," Dershowitz said.
And just because they're Russians, Dershowitz said, doesn't mean the U.S. should abandon its legal principles.
"I don’t think it’s proper, by the way, for the Justice Department to indict people who will never be brought to trial, because once you do that, what you’re saying is we presume them guilty," Dershowitz said. "And they’re supposed to be presumed innocent. And the American public takes the indictment as proof. Now in this case, it’s probably true…"
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