Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz remarked Monday on a striking parallel regarding the Georgia indictment against President Donald Trump. He commented on the similarity of the allegations against Trump to actions taken by Democrats during the contested 2000 presidential election.
Dershowitz told Fox News Digital: “We challenged the election, and we did much of the things that are being done today and people praised us.” Now, those same actions that were once the subject of widespread support are being labeled as criminal.
Dershowitz slams GA indictment, says Trump used same tactics as Al Gore in 2000: not a ‘crime' https://t.co/xJf5I52MXk
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 15, 2023
Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has brought forward the indictment against Trump and 18 other individuals. This action comes after an investigation into allegations that Trump and his team attempted to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. The charges range from violating the Georgia RICO Act to conspiracy to commit forgery.
Dershowitz, who notably provided legal counsel for Al Gore during the tumultuous 2000 election, remarked, “It’s pretty much the same thing I did and Professor Lawrence Tribe did, and those of us who were on the Al Gore team.” The legal expert clarified that actions like requesting vote verification and asking for election result recalculations were standard procedures in the past. So, why is it different now?
Indeed, during the 2020 election aftermath, Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” indicating he believed he had been wronged in the election results. And while these actions bear a striking resemblance to the Gore team’s 2000 strategy, where they urged officials to scrutinize specific counties, the reactions from the public and the law have been starkly different.
President Trump didn’t mince words about the indictment, telling Fox News Digital that it was a part of the “longest-running Witch Hunt in American history.” Trump also criticized Willis, highlighting her priorities should lie with tackling Fulton County’s high crime rates rather than pursuing politically motivated indictments.
But the spotlight remains fixed on the issue at hand: the politicization of the legal system. Dershowitz warned of this very risk, suggesting that if such indictments were pursued against Trump, it would open the door for the same to happen to Democrats in the future. He urged that the Constitution encourages political disputes to be taken to court and Congress rather than criminalizing such actions.
It’s a sentiment shared by many who view this indictment as an overreach. Even Dershowitz, commenting on the recent blunder where the DA’s office prematurely posted an indictment document, stated, “Nobody should take the indictments at all seriously,” suggesting the grand jury process was just a formality.
As the legal proceedings unfold, one thing is sure. This case will test the bounds of the legal system, potentially setting new precedents for how political disputes are handled in the future. For now, the public watches, waits and hopes for a just outcome.
