Alan Dershowitz: ‘Bad Jury for Donald Trump’

Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus of Law at Harvard University, asserted to Newsmax on Friday that the former President, Donald Trump, had been dealt “a bad jury” in his criminal trial in New York.

In New York City on Friday, a panel of 12 jurors and six alternate jurors was selected for Trump’s criminal trial.

“This is a bad jury for Donald Trump,” Dershowitz said on “Newsline.” “I think it’s too much of a New York Times, TikTok jury. …This is maybe the best you can do with a New York jury pool, but it’s not a good jury for Donald Trump.”

Dershowitz predicted that “the best he’s likely to do is a hung jury,” and said that while “it’s possible” that the jurors could vote to acquit Trump, he “can’t imagine” they will.

Addressing the judge’s refusal to compel prosecutors to disclose the identities of their initial three witnesses, Dershowitz criticized the decision. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass declined to divulge their names when pressed by Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche, citing Trump’s disparaging remarks about witnesses and other case affiliates on social media.

In response, Judge Juan Merchan defended the prosecution, stating, “I can’t fault them for that,” as reported by Newsweek.

Dershowitz said that the judge’s ruling was “not fair.”

“You have a right to prepare, and if I were Trump’s lawyers as soon as the name of the first question is going forward, I would call for a recess” and ask for multiple days to prepare questions for cross-examination.

“You can’t just call witnesses out of the blue and expect that you’d be ready for cross-examination or objections,” Dershowitz said.

He went on to call the gag order imposed on Trump “outrageously unfair,” adding that “criticizing is part of the essence of our First Amendment and it should apply to anybody who’s playing a role” in the trial.

{Matzav.com}