Jack Smith Could Face Criminal Charges over Trump Indictment, Alan Dershowitz Claims
Aug. 7 2023, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
Former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz said Special Counsel Jack Smith "could be himself indicted" for omitting a portion of Donald Trump's "peaceful" rhetoric during a January 2021 speech under his own "fraud" standard, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Trump is currently charged with four counts for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights, all for which he has pleaded not guilty.
The indictment claimed that Trump, along with six unnamed co-conspirators, fueled distrust in the administration of the election and allegedly "pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results."
However, a portion of the indictment referencing Trump's speech at the "Stop the Steal" rally in D.C. left out a sentence highlighted by the former commander-in-chief's legal team, noted Dershowitz, who defended #45 during his first impeachment trial in the Senate.
"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard," Trump said at the time.
Dershowitz said Smith excluded that important piece. "Under the indictment itself, Jack Smith could be himself indicted," he said on the Megyn Kelly Show podcast.
"[Smith] told a direct lie in this indictment," claimed Dershowitz. "He purported to describe the speech that President Trump made on January 6. And he left out the key words, when President Trump said, 'I want you to demonstrate peacefully and patriotically.' You know, a lie by omission, under the law, can be as serious as a lie by commission."
Dershowitz went on to clarify his stance previously made while chatting with Brian Kilmeade during a Fox News Radio interview.
"Theoretically, it's not going to happen, obviously, under the Ku Klux Klan statute that he says any people who conspire to deny somebody their constitutional rights is guilty of a crime," he explained.
He noted how Trump is being charged under the civil rights law used to prosecute KKK acts of violence, Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code.
"That would mean that Jack Smith tried to deny Trump his constitutional rights in this indictment," Dershowitz continued before setting the record straight. "I make that point not to argue that Jack Smith should be indicted, of course not. To make the point that the indictment is so broad, so wide, so all encompassing, it could include so much political conduct."
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Trump, for his part, declared that it was a "very sad day for America" after pleading not guilty.
"It was also very sad driving through Washington, D.C.," he shared. "It's a very sad thing to see it. When you look at what's happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America."