Renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz cautioned on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump has a slim chance of being acquitted in the liberal city of New York, due to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s unparalleled legal action.
“There’s no way he can get a fair trial,” Dershowitz said during an appearance with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “I don’t care if Jesus, Muhammad, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thurgood Marshall defended Trump in New York, he wouldn’t win this case. Hung jury? Maybe. Acquittal? Never.”
Dershowitz made the statement after Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday, during which he pleaded not guilty to 34 charges related to falsifying business records in connection to hush-money payments made in 2016, Fox News reported.
At an earlier point in the “Hannity” segment, Dershowitz went into more detail about why he thinks Trump faces a difficult legal battle.
“It reminds me of when I was a civil rights person in the South… even if you didn’t spit on the sidewalk, if the sheriff said you spit on the sidewalk and charged you with it, there’s no chance you could get acquitted by an all-White Jim Crow jury,” he said.
“Everybody knew that. You were innocent, but everyone knew you were going to be convicted,” he continued.
Dershowitz noted that he did not want to draw parallels between the Jim Crow South and New York City but explained that finding 12 jurors with an impartial view in the city was nearly impossible.
“[They] don’t want to walk around town and have people say ‘That’s the juror who freed Donald Trump and allowed him to be president,'” he added.
Dershowitz claimed that the judge in Trump’s case has a similar view and is unwilling to move the trial out of Manhattan to a more impartial location because of the fear of facing criticism.
Trump’s supporters have raised concerns that choosing a jury from Manhattan, a region that heavily voted for President Biden in the 2020 election, could give an unfair advantage to the prosecution. They have suggested that moving the trial to Staten Island, a nearby location, would be a fairer approach, according to Fox’s report.
“Any decent judge would change the venue immediately, but this judge won’t do that,” Dershowitz offered. “Any decent judge would throw the case out on the statute of limitations. This judge won’t do it. He doesn’t want to ruin his career… Remember, judges in New York are elected.”
Dershowitz also downplayed the significance of other ongoing legal cases against Trump, such as those in Fulton County, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.
“Federal judges are more likely to rule in his favor because they have lifetime appointments,” he explained. “I don’t think a state court judge has the courage. I don’t think state court jurors have the courage [to acquit him].”
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