Dershowitz warns WH will nullify executive privilege for future presidents if they waive it for Trump

Following the assertions from journalist John Solomon that President Joe Biden’s White House had “instigated” the criminal probe that led to the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s home, Alan Dershowitz reacted to the “very serious matters” that the White House “clearly is wrong” on.

(Video: Fox News)

The legal scholar and former Harvard Law professor joined Fox News’s “Hannity” Monday night to react to the latest revelation surrounding the Aug. 8 search and seizure conducted at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida home. As previously reported, Solomon had obtained a letter from acting National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall sent to Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Trump, that had laid out a series of interactions involving the coordination of Biden’s White House, the Justice Department, and the FBI.

“The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here,” Wall wrote, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege’…I have therefore decided not to honor the former President’s ‘protective’ claim of privilege.”

Fox News host Sean Hannity proceeded to ask Dershowitz about his view on that report from Solomon and the fact that Trump had filed a suit with the court alleging that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated to which the professor expressed, “These are very, very serious matters.”

“The whole issue of whether or not there was full disclosure to the magistrate hopefully will come out when we see the affidavit. There should be a special master appointed,” Dershowitz contended in agreement with Trump’s motion for oversight. “This has happened in the past, a special master, a former judge, can go through all the papers and decide what’s privileged.”

“One thing that clearly is wrong is the Biden White House should not be able to waive the executive privilege of President Trump,” he further asserted. “That would make the executive privilege a nullity. It would mean that no president could ever speak with confidence without knowing that two years from now or three years from now all of it will be revealed by the current president.”

“That’s just not the way executive privilege was supposed to operate. So there are lots and lots of questions, I hope they’ll be answered by the affidavit,” the professor offered.

Dershowitz had previously stated when asked by Just the News to review the Wall letter, “The best thinking is that an incumbent president cannot waive the right of the previous president. It would make a mockery of the whole notion of privilege.”

He went on to argue in favor of Judge Bruce Reinhart’s decision to reject the Justice Department’s argument to keep the affidavit used to obtain the warrant sealed and posited, “The theory of the case should not be disclosed. Why not? What’s there to hide?”

Legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, who had also joined the program and laid out Trump’s challenge to the Justice Department, was less favorable to Reinhart as he noted in an op-ed, “Perhaps duplicity is the underlying reason why Reinhart now wants at least some of the affidavit exposed to the light of public scrutiny.”

As bad as that might be for the judge whom Trump had pointed out “recused himself just two months ago, from a MAJOR civil suit that I filed, because of his bias and animus toward me,” it was not nearly as untoward as the allegations that Jarrett leveled against the FBI when he wrote, “Importantly, the affidavit might also divulge whether the FBI was dishonest in its representations to the court or otherwise concealed relevant and exculpatory information. It would not be the first time the FBI has lied to get what it wants…Sadly, the bureau has a long and disgraceful record of false statements, deceit, omissions, and manipulation of evidence to gain invasive warrants.”

Kevin Haggerty

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