Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional law expert, told Newsmax on Friday that he emptied his “trash pail” before viewing the full report from the Georgia grand jury that recommended indicting former President Donald Trump and 18 of his associates.
Dershowitz said he would need the space for the report.
“Grand jury reports are utterly worthless,” Dershowitz said on Newsmax’s “National Report.” “Look at them skeptically. Grand jury reports in a place like Fulton County are absolutely meaningless unless they have exculpatory material.
“The grand jury not only will indict a ham sandwich if the prosecutor says it should, but will indict anybody named Trump or anybody associated with Trump. So, as soon as I get the report, I’ve emptied my trash pail because it’ll probably be a large report and that’s where it belongs.”
In a section of the report that was released in February, jury members said they believed one or more witnesses perjured themselves, or lied under oath, during testimony.
Dershowitz called it an unsurprising conclusion from a grand jury.
“If you say something different from what the DA says, the grand jury will find it to be perjurious,” he said. “That’s why grand juries don’t overcome the presumption of innocence. You’re still as innocent as you and I are when a grand jury indicts you. It requires petit jury proof beyond a reasonable doubt on both sides.
“Grand jury hears only one side of the evidence. What do you expect when you hear only a one-sided presentation?”
“It’s even worse than the congressional committee that was supposed to look into this and included nobody who supported any of Trump’s views at all, and it came up with what we expected: a one-sided report, which even doctored the tape and omitted the words ‘peacefully and patriotically’ from the speech that Donald Trump made,” Dershowtiz added, referring to the House Jan. 6 Committee. “That’s what you get from one-sided injustice.”
Dershowitz also commented on Trump’s potential attempt to move the Georgia criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election from state court to federal court.
In a Thursday court filing, Trump lawyer Steven Sadow wrote, “President Trump hereby notifies the Court that he may seek removal of his prosecution to federal court.”
Dershowitz added: “Some of the defendants have the opportunity to move into a federal court because they were indicted for conduct they committed while working for the federal government.
“That isn’t true of all the defendants, and it’s truer of some than of others. Already two motions have been made, and I’m sure that former President Trump’s lawyers will make a motion to have his case removed as well.
“It’s unclear whether the federal court will grant that motion. It’s usually a discretionary motion, but it may be subject to appeal as well.”
Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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