Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Dershowitz Says Trump Should Fear New York Prosecutors, Not Mueller

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz thinks President Trump should be more worried about federal prosecutors in New York than about the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Dershowitz, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School and frequent cable news talking head, said Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week” that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York could present a real issue for Trump because the Constitution offers less protection to the president from federal prosecutors than it does from a special counsel.

“I think he has constitutional defenses to the investigation being conducted by Mueller,” Dershowitz said. “But there are no constitutional defenses to what the Southern District is investigating. So, I think the Southern District is the greatest threat.”

Trump’s legal team cites the Constitution as a why Trump won’t meet with Mueller, who is investigating the Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as potential collusion with the campaign and obstruction of justice.

His situation in New York differs, however, and continues to deepen. Prosecutors there granted immunity last week to Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, and David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally and executive of the National Enquirer magazine’s parent company.

News of the deals came days after former longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies. Cohen said he made the payments at Trump’s direction.

The Cohen case is unlikely to lead to legal consequences for Trump while he’s in office, according to the Post. However, if Democrats take the House in November, impeachment may be on the horizon.

Dershowitz said “it would be great” to have Democrats in power so there could be further investigations.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.