Alan Dershowitz Accuses Judge Of Using ‘Sleazy’ Tactic To Get Supreme Court To Let Him Sentence Trump

Attorney Alan Dershowitz on Friday criticized Judge Juan Merchan for telegraphing how he would sentence President-elect Donald Trump, an act that Dershowitz said influenced the U.S. Supreme Court not to block Trump’s sentencing.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Trump’s effort to halt his sentencing. Merchan had indicated he would sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge, meaning no jail, fine or probation. Dershowitz, on “Kudlow,” said that if the justices hadn’t known Merchan’s plan, they would have stopped the sentencing.

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“I devised the term lawfare. I wrote about it in the late 1960s, and it’s become this horrible, horrible thing that has been used against American democracies. Of course New York suffers. Of course Trump won, but the ultimate loser is the American people,” Dershowitz said. “And what Judge Merchan did was so sleazy and so sneaky. He announced in advance that he wouldn’t sentence him to jail. Look, I’ve been doing this for 62 years. I have never had a judge tell me in advance what the sentence was going to be.”

“In fact when I bring my clients to the courtroom for sentencing, I have them bring their toothbrush because I never know whether they’re going home or going to the prison, but he did this purposely, in order to get the Supreme Court not to take the case now,” Dershowitz said. “And two of the justices fell for his ploy. They said, ‘Oh he’s not sentencing him to jail.’ They shouldn’t have known that. ‘He’s not sentencing him to jail so we’re not going to stop the case.’ This was worse than lawfare. This was an attempt to manipulate the legal system.”