According to high-power attorney Alan Dershowitz, DA Bragg or a member of the grand jury that just indicted former President Donald Trump could be in major legal trouble because of the leaked indictment.
Such is what Dershowitz said in an op-ed for The New York Sun, writing that the leak of the sealed indictment could lead to DA Bragg or a member of the grand jury spending up to five years in prison.
In the article, he said, “It is likely that a serious felony has been committed right under District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s nose and he is not investigating it. Under New York law, it is a felony to leak confidential grand jury information, such as whether the jurors voted to indict. The protection of secrecy is as applicable to President Trump as it is to anyone else.”
Continuing, he added, “We know that the information was disclosed while the indictment itself remains sealed and before any official announcement was made or charges brought. It is unlikely that the leak came from the Trump team, which seemed genuinely surprised.”
Describing what the felony is and the likely scenario that led to it, he then said, “The most likely, though uncertain, scenario is that a person in Mr. Bragg’s office or a grand juror unlawfully leaked the sealed information. That would be a class E felony, subject to imprisonment.”
However, he added that the investigation of the leak that should occur probably won’t happen because DA Bragg and his office are too busy trying to lock up Trump by making up a crime, saying, “It is possible of course that an investigation is underway, but it seems more likely that Mr. Bragg is too busy making up a crime against the man he promised in his campaign to get than investigating a real crime that took place on his watch.”
Dershowitz ripped into that made-up crime as well, saying:
“Why would Mr. Trump pay the money in the first place if he had to publicly disclose the embarrassing reason? Furthermore, no one in history has ever been indicted for listing ‘legal expenses’ for setting a potentially embarrassing payment of hush money.”
“Thus, even the misdemeanor allegation involving false entries is unprecedented and represents selective prosecution. It is also almost certainly barred by the two-year statute of limitations. In order to elevate this bookkeeping case into a felony, Mr. Bragg must also prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the reason Trump made the false entry — if he himself did it — was solely as a campaign contribution to help him win his election.”
Dershowitz made much the same claim during an appearance on Fox News, saying that Bragg has evidence a felony was committed within his building yet isn’t even attempting to prosecute it, saying:
“If somebody on the grand jury, prosecutor or grand juror, leaked the fact that there was a vote to indict, that is a one – five year class E felony under New York.”
“Bragg now has a prima facia case that a crime has been committed right in his building, but as far as I know he’s not investigating it.”
“We don’t know who did the leak. It is conceivable it could have been done by somebody in the Trump administration but I doubt it because they seem to have been taken by great surprise so the most likely source of the leak is someone from within Bragg’s office or within the grand jury. That’s where the focus ought to be.”
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