Dershowitz blasts penalties in Trump civil fraud case, floats Letitia James' disbarment

In the wake of Judge Arthur Engoron's staggering decision Friday to level over $350 million in fines against former President Donald Trump and a three-year-ban on his ability to do business in New York, Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz is calling for professional consequences against Attorney General Letitia James, who spearheaded the underlying case.

Dershowitz made his case for James' potential disbarment during a Friday appearance on Fox News' Hannity, as Breitbart reports, when host Sean Hannity asked Dershowitz about the provocative title of his book, Get Trump, wondering about the origins of the name.

The renowned constitutional law expert replied, “I didn't make it up. I wish I were creative and original, but I got it from obviously Letitia James' campaign.”

That is when Dershowitz went on to suggest that the New York AG ought to face scrutiny from the state bar for the manner in which she brought the case against the former president.

“She ought to be brought up before the bar. You should not have an elected prosecutor campaigning on the promise to get a particular defendant,” he said, referencing James' many vows to voters to specifically target Trump if they propelled her into office.

Drawing a jarring historical analogy, Dershowitz added, “This is a variation of Stalin and Beria back in the 1930s when the head of the KGB says to Stalin, show me the man, I'll find you the crime.”

“This is – show me the man, we know who it is. She told us who it was, Donald Trump, and we'll find you the fraud even though there was no harm,” he continued.

Dershowitz went on to explain what he believes is the specific egregiousness of Engoron's decision, given that it a case that did not appear to have any particular victims, saying, “Generally in our legal system, particularly under the system of equity when you don't get a jury trial, if it's no harm, no foul, no harm, no fine, but when you have no damages at all. Usually you can do a multiple,” he noted.

“Say if there's a million dollars of damages, you can give a $3 million fine. But when you have zero damages, no matter how many times you multiple it, zero plus and nth times whatever, is all still zero,” Dershowitz opined.

He went on to slam Engoron's reasoning, saying, “You know, this is a judge, which over-evaluates when he wants to, $350 million for no damage, then under-evaluates when he wants to, Mar-a-Lago, $18 million. He's just willing to manipulate the numbers to get him to the result he wanted.”

Dershowitz is not the only high-profile figure to suggest the need for professional ramifications for James' conduct in the Trump case, as House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has also urged disbarment of the state AG, as Fox News notes.

In a formal ethics complaint filed with the state's Committee on Professional Standards, Stefanik said James weaponized her political bias against the former president and must face sanctions as a result.

“New York Attorney General Letitia James violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by conducting a biased investigation and prosecution of President Trump and by attacking President Trump through extrajudicial statements during trial,” Stefanik claimed.

She went on, “This complaint respectfully requests that the Attorney Grievance Committee conduct an investigation and issue an immediate interim suspension, disbar Ms. James as an attorney and counselor-at-law, or suspend Ms. James,” but whether her request will gain any traction, only time will tell.