Alan Dershowitz went on Fox News on Tuesday evening to defend President Trump after his longtime attorney and fixer Michael Cohen implicated him in illegal campaign contributions to multiple women.
In an appearance with Tucker Carlson, the Harvard law professor said it was not a major scandal and that everyone violated campaign finance law.
“Violation of election laws are regarded as kind of jaywalking in the realm of things about elections. There are so many of them,” Dershowitz said.
“Every administration violates the election laws. Every candidate violates the election laws when they run for president. Usually, they pay a fine. Something like that happens. Here they are trying to elevate this into an impeachable offense or a felony against the president.”
“Right right,” Carlson said while nodding along.
“They may name the president as an unindicted co-conspirator,” Dershowitz continued. “This is the beginning of a story that will unravel over time. But it is not nearly as deadly lethal as some have portrayed it as being.”
That “some” Dershowitz is referring to was the combined consensus that began to take shape on MSNBC, CNN and the rest of the mainstream media. However, by the end of Tuesday, even reliable Trump defenders were wavering in their support.
“If you cheat on your wife with a porn star and then break campaign finance laws to keep her from telling people about it, you have nobody but yourself to blame,” scolded Daily Caller reporter Peter Hasson.
If you cheat on your wife with a porn star and then break campaign finance laws to keep her from telling people about it, you have nobody but yourself to blame
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) August 22, 2018
“There is no universe that exists under which all the MAGA-folks wouldn’t be calling for Hillary’s impeachment or resignation under similar facts. So take that into account when you read their defenses,” noted National Review writer David French.
There is no universe that exists under which all the MAGA-folks wouldn’t be calling for Hillary’s impeachment or resignation under similar facts. So take that into account when you read their defenses.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) August 21, 2018
On Tuesday, Cohen — who once said he would take a bullet for Trump — implicated the president in making payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in order to silence both women from speaking about affairs they say they had with him. Trump has consistently denied the accusations.
On the same day, Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight counts of fraud charges stemming from his time as a political consultant in Eastern Europe. The fate of both men suggests that the original special counsel probe intended to investigation Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign has widened to become an examination of the actions of the president and his closest associates.