Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz warned special counsel Jack Smith that he could be indicted if the indictment of President Donald Trump is thrown out.
Earlier this week, Smith brought a four-count indictment against Trump about his efforts to contest the 2020 election results.
In June, the 37-count indictment against Trump was regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Now Trump is facing arraignment on the charges in the new indictment.
“Under the terms of this indictment, Jack Smith can be indicted,” Dershowitz told Fox News.
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“The statute says the following: ‘if two or more persons conspire to injure and deny somebody the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured him by the Constitution.'”
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“What if a court ultimately ruled that Donald Trump had a right under the First Amendment to make his Jan. 6 speech and to do what he did? Then Jack Smith will have conspired to deny him of that right. That’s how serious this is,” he said.
“Jack Smith also, in his indictment, deliberately, willfully, and maliciously leaves out the words that President Trump spoke on Jan. 6 in his terrible speech, which I disagree with, but what he said was, ‘I want you to assemble peacefully and patriotically,'” Dershowitz added.
“Jack [Smith] leaves that out. That is a lie, … and if you’re going to indict somebody for telling lies, don’t tell lies in the indictment,” he said.
“If you’re going to indict somebody for denying people their constitutional rights, don’t deny them their constitutional rights by indicting them for free speech. That’s how hypocritical this is.”
According to Dershowitz, Smith’s indictment targeted the 45th president’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel by describing attorneys who represented him as “unindicted co-conspirators.”
“The Supreme Court has said in an opinion by Chief Justice [William] Rehnquist [that] under the First Amendment, there is no such thing as a false opinion or a false idea. The response to a false idea is the marketplace of ideas or Election Day,” Dershowitz said.
“This is a very, very dangerous indictment, dangerous to the First Amendment and also dangerous to the Sixth Amendment because it directly goes after Trump’s lawyers — names them as unindicted co-conspirators without giving their names, but basically says they’re criminals for giving him advice as to how to challenge the election.”
READ: Majority of Voters Say Trump Indictment Is “Election Interference”
