Dershowitz Doubles Down: Kushner Scrutiny Raises 'Great Concern'

The news that the FBI has President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner under scrutiny is not a "major development" but it does raise "great concern" for his civil liberties, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said Friday, doubling down on comments he made Thursday night. 

"We have a special counsel with a mandate not to investigate crime, but to investigate the entire Russian matter, and in general, prosecutors are given statutory authority when to investigate only federal statutory crimes," Dershowitz told MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle Friday. 

"I have no idea what crime is going to be investigated here."

Further, Dershowitz said that "perhaps it should be" a crime for a political campaign to coordinate with a foreign government, but as for now, it's not.

"It's a terrible thing to do," the famed attorney said. "It's not a crime. I worry that the special counsel has a roving commission to investigate sin, political evil and that raises great dangers.

"He's looking for a crime . . . I think this investigation is determined to find something criminal on the part of the Trump campaign. But we don't know what it is."

Former FBI agent Clint Watts, who testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March about the investigation, said he does not agree with Dershowitz, as Kushner was in many meetings with former National Security Agency Michael Flynn.

"I don't think Kushner is necessarily the target of an investigation," Watts said. "I've heard that a couple times. I think he's also part of a lot of the meetings . . . when we look at the Flynn scenario, it's about what was discussed? Was it quid pro quo? You know, was it regarding sanctions?"

"Where is the beef?" Dershowitz replied. "I still want to know from the special prosecutor what is the statute? What are they investigating? It is obstruction of justice? Is it treason? It is hacking?

"None of these things seems to me to constitute violations of federal criminal law on the basis of the evidence as I now know it."

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