Dershowitz to Newsmax: 'Outrageous' to Blame Jan. 6 on 'Hitman' Analogy

It is "outrageous" to blame the violence at the Capitol on a "hitman," and that analogy won't work as a defense for the hundreds of people who are facing criminal charges in connection with the incidents that occurred on Jan. 6, Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax Wednesday. 

"The hitman analogy undercuts due process," Dershowitz said on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now," while commenting on statements made by Capitol Police Sgt. Harry Dunn to the select committee investigating the matter. 

Dunn, without specifically calling out former President Donald Trump by name, told the panel Tuesday that "if a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail. Not only does the hitman go to jail, but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6, and a hitman sent them. I want you to get to the bottom of that." 

But while Dershowitz said he disagrees with the speech the then-president gave to a huge crowd of supporters on Jan. 6, and he wishes Trump hadn't given the address, it was still "fully protected by the First Amendment, and he didn't tell anybody to go into the Capitol."

Dershowitz added that he wishes Trump had called the demonstrations off while they were going on, but that also was "not criminal."

But blaming the offenses at the Capitol on a "hitman analogy" could prevent people from being judged individually on their actions, said Dershowitz. 

"The event was a tragedy," he said, but the rule of law says the suspects must be judged individually. "We can't have groupthink," he added. "I'm afraid that these hearings, which are so partisan ... I wish we had a commission like the 9-11 commission, which was not partisan."

Dershowitz also commented on the case of a New Jersey mother and daughter who were slapped with $250-a-day fines over profane signs they hung on their fence about President Joe Biden. The case was dismissed, and Dershowitz said he is "thrilled with that decision."

"I like Joe Biden," said Dershowitz. "I've known him for almost 40 years. I would never say anything like that, but they have a right to say it. The Supreme Court upheld the same word followed by the draft in a case called cones and the First Amendment will survive the use of some dirty words and some filthy language ... the First Amendment is supposed to protect the worst kind of speech that we have."

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