Dershowitz: Comey replacement must be ‘above reproach’
Longtime Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz joined Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” program yesterday to discuss President Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey.
Q: What are your thoughts on James Comey? Does this trigger a constitutional crisis?
A: Well it will trigger a constitutional crisis only if the president doesn’t do the right thing now. If the president does the right thing and appoints somebody who is above reproach ... it will not be a constitutional crisis, but were he to appoint a crony, the American people would just lose confidence in the administration of justice.
Q: So why, at this point, would you think having a special prosecutor would be a bad idea?
A: Because I think special prosecutors generally raise all kinds of serious problems, No. 1. No. 2, you need probable cause to have a prosecutor appointed. I haven’t yet seen the evidence of criminal conduct. I’ve seen very disturbing conduct.
But my view is that it is much better at this point to appoint an independent commission to get to the bottom of it, get all the facts, and if they recommend a special prosecutor, then it will come with more credibility than when it comes when Democrats call for it.
Q: If this came from the Oval Office, what would that potentially trigger?
A: I think many Americans would feel that President Trump was looking for an excuse to fire Comey and he turned to (Deputy Attorney General) Rod Rosenstein and said, ‘Get me the justification and I’ll fire him.’ And that the president didn’t really want to fire him because he was unfair to Hillary Clinton.
Q: Can you speak to the fact that Democrats were furious and saying that Comey had an impact on the election, yet now they’re furious that he was fired?
A: Well that’s where nuance comes in. My position is he did the wrong thing, we should all be furious with him ... on the other hand, having said that, it’s not so clear that it should’ve been Donald Trump that did the firing at this point in time when the investigation is underway.
Q: With Comey’s history of mishandling situations, why isn’t that valid to point to in the firing?
A: It’s a very valid reason, it’s a good reason why I think many people are pleased that he is no longer the director of the FBI, but I think a lot of people wished that it had come about in a different way. Because when you have a president who’s White House is under investigation making the decision to fire, it raises at least the appearance of conflict of interest.