Dershowitz: Mueller Squeezing Manafort To Get Him To 'Sing' or 'Compose' Against Trump
Renowned legal scholar Alan Dershowitz argued on Wednesday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is squeezing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in hopes of making him “sing” or even “compose” against President Donald Trump.
Fox News host Sandra Smith asked Dershowitz to respond to a report that Mueller’s team has requested a federal judge in Northern Virginia compel “five potential witnesses” to testify in Manafort’s upcoming trial in exchange for immunity.
“A normal U.S. attorney wouldn’t grant so much immunity for such a small fry defendant,” the Harvard law professor emeritus observed. “It really shows that what is going on here is they are targeting the president.”
Dershowitz argued that Mueller’s lawyers are “trying not only to make (Manafort) sing, but make him compose possibly and putting all the pressure they can on him.”
The legal expert went on to explain that is why he and other civil libertarians oppose the technique of squeezing witnesses by indicting them for unrelated crimes.
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“I used to teach my first year criminal law students that if you commit a crime in America always commit a crime with someone more important than you are so you can flip on them and they can’t flip on you. That’s what’s going on here,” Dershowitz said.
He later emphasized the danger of a witness composing a tall tale to secure a more advantageous plea deal.
“The fear is not only that he’ll sing, but that he might compose,” Dershowitz stated. “That he might make things up or exaggerate, because we know witnesses understand, the better the story, the better the deal.”
The author of the newly released book “The Case Against Impeaching Trump” went on to argue why Mueller should never have been appointed.
“A special counsel has to produce results, unlike a normal U.S. attorney,” Dershowitz said. “If an normal U.S. attorney investigates a case and there’s nothing there, it just goes away.”
“But if a special counsel is appointed and he’s given tens of millions dollars and a large staff and comes up with nothing, he’s failed,” the lawyer added.
In May, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III raised the issue of Mueller’s team indicting Manafort for crimes unrelated to the Russian investigation in hopes of getting him to “sing” against Trump.
“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” the judge charged. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”
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