Alan Dershowitz has a unique perspective on this Georgia prosecution of Donald Trump and explains why it is so outrageous.
He references his own contributions to Al Gore’s team trying to find 600 votes in Florida to beat George W. Bush in 2000.
Here’s what he wrote in the Daily Mail:
Electoral challenges have long been part of American history.
Only now are they being criminalized.
I was one of the lawyers involved in objections to Florida’s presidential vote in 2000.
A margin of less than 600 ballots determined that Governor George W. Bush rather than Vice President Al Gore won the state and, thus, the electoral college vote.
I was convinced then and I am convinced now that this result was wrong.
No one was indicted, disbarred, disciplined or even much criticized for those efforts, yet here we stand today.
President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants has been charged with election fraud, conspiracy, racketeering and more, under a law designed to take down criminal organizations, known as the RICO Act.
Should Al Gore have been charged in 2000?
What about me?
Dershowitz makes very interesting comparisons to their actions in 2000 versus Trump’s actions in 2023:
I represented the voters of Palm Beach County, many of whom voted by mistake for Pat Buchanan rather than Gore because of the infamous butterfly ballots and hanging chads that prevented their votes from being accurately counted.
During the course of our challenges, many tactics similar to those employed in 2020 were attempted.
“Lawyers wrote legal memoranda outlining possible courses of conduct”
Lawyers wrote legal memoranda outlining possible courses of conduct, including proposing a slate of alternate electors, who would deliver our preferred election results to Congress.
Now, Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani, along with others, are accused of conspiracy to commit forgery and false statements for drafting their list of alternate electors.
“Florida state officials were lobbied to secure recounts…”
In 2000, Florida state officials were lobbied to secure recounts in selected counties in which we thought the tally would favor us. We were trying to find at least 600 votes that would change the result.
This new indictment features Trump’s phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which was captured in an audio recording. In the conversation, Trump asks Raffensperger to ‘find’ 12,000 votes.
In my mind, this call is among the most exculpatory pieces of evidence. Trump was entitled as a candidate to ask a Georgia state official to locate votes that he believes were not counted.
“Attempts were made to influence various Florida officials…”
In 2000, attempts were made to influence various Florida officials to recount the votes.
Now, the former president’s request that Georgia’s Republican Speaker of the House reconsider the count is being charged as soliciting a public official to violate his oath.
But if similar behavior was legal in 2000, how could it be illegal in 2023?
It’s illegal now because the candidate’s name is Donald Trump. That’s the only reason. Democrats are weaponizing law enforcement on both the federal and state level to go after Republicans named Donald Trump and it is setting a terrible precedent for the future. This is the kind of stuff they used to do in the Soviet Union. And now it’s happening here.