Lawyer Alan Dershowitz has advised former President Donald Trump to use his mugshot as a campaign and money-making tool.
Mr Trump is scheduled to be arraigned in New York City at 2.15pm on Tuesday after the Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him for falsifying business records following the 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen paid Ms Daniels $130,000 towards the end of the campaign for her to remain silent about an affair she claims she had with Mr Trump a decade previously, an allegation the ex-president has rejected.
While it has been reported that Mr Trump faces more than 30 counts of business fraud, no specific charges have been revealed as the indictment remains under seal.
After the news of the indictment on Thursday, Mr Dershowitz appeared on the rightwing network Newsmax, advising Mr Trump to use his mugshot to sell t-shirts and make campaign posters.
Mr Dershowtiz, who defended Mr Trump during his first impeachment trial, spoke on the programme hosted by Mr Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer.
“He will be mug shot and fingerprinted. There’s really no way around that,” Mr Dershowitz said.
Observers have noted that the indictment could provide a boost to Mr Trump, but some have argued that while it may help him in a Republican primary with already loyal supporters, it may also make it more difficult to win a general election where winning moderates and independents is key to success.
“This is the thinnest case, this is the most stretched case I’ve ever seen,” Mr Dershowitz told Newsmax despite not having seen the indictment.
“When you are trying to indict the man who’s running against the current president from your own political party, you better have a slam dunk case,” he added. “And as far as I can tell, we haven’t seen the indictment yet. There is nothing there. But why isn’t Bragg trying to indict, prosecute and convict the person who violated New York felony law by leaking the grand jury proceedings?”
“Yesterday, The New York Times reported, according to four people, this grand jury had indicted, that is a secret under the law and no one is allowed to leak it subject to a criminal punishment of years in prison,” he said. “So I challenge Bragg going after a criminal who we know has committed a crime, rather than targeting somebody, targeting somebody who you can’t paint on.”
“This is targeting and weaponizing, not the American way of justice. A very sad day for justice,” the attorney said, according to TND. “Look, we haven’t seen the indictment. We can’t be sure maybe they have a videotape of him shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue. But based on what we know about this case, it may be one of the weakest cases in my six years of experience.”
