Dershowitz: ‘This Is a Fixed Case if It’s Tried in Manhattan’

During an appearance on Monday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Hannity,” Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz vowed to fight any gag order placed on former President Donald Trump pertaining to his sealed grand jury indictment.

Dershowitz told host Sean Hannity if the case is tried in Manhattan, things will not go in Trump’s favor.

“My question to you is, how do you — how does a judge get to take away the right of an American to speak out on their own behalf, on a — on a very public case like this?” Hannity asked.

“Tragically, judges have done that, and they’ve done it recently. I was glad to see Joe be optimistic that they’re not going to do it in this case — but if they did do it in this case, I would immediately put together some of the great First Amendment lawyers in America as amicus because we would be the victims,” Dershowitz replied. “There are two First Amendment rights. The right of the speaker but the right of the listener, according to Justice Thurgood Marshall, is just as important. But I hope that won’t happen because that would really mean a body blow to the First Amendment. And today, you couldn’t even count on the American Civil Liberties Union to defend the First Amendment on behalf of Donald Trump because they would lose all of their funding.”

“You know, the only disagreement I have with Joe is a great lawyer. I think he’s too much of an optimist. I cannot imagine an elected judge in the borough of Manhattan throwing out this case and having to go to his family and say, ‘I’m the lawyer who freed Donald Trump,’ or his friends or his business associates. All he has to do is remember what happened to me when I defended — just defended Donald Trump on the Senate, lost all of my friends, clients business associates, and no judge is going to want to be, quote, ‘Dershowitz-ed,'” he continued. “So you’re not going to have an opportunity to get a fair assessment of statute of limitations, change of venue. This is a fixed case if it’s tried in Manhattan.”

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