Alan Dershowitz: Sessions 'Going About It the Right Way'

Despite Republicans protesting Attorney General Jeff Sessions' declination to appoint a second special counsel, renowned civil liberties law expert Alan Dershowitz said Sessions is "going about it the right way," and it should have been done this way before FBI special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, he added.

"It should have been the call when Mueller was appointed," Dershowitz, law professor emeritus at Harvard University, told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo. "We should have never seen the appointment of a special counsel as the first step."

Sessions did reveal this week federal prosecutor John Huber is working to weigh the need for a special counsel, effectively passing the buck from the attorney general who was forced to recuse himself from the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential Trump campaign collusion.

"Is there evidence of criminal conduct?" Dershowitz asked. "Never confuse political sins with federal crimes. And think this is going about it the right way – calibrated step by step.

"The answer to one bad appointment of a special counsel is not a second bad appointment of a special counsel."

Dershowitz, famously a defender of civil liberties, said he is "against the criminalization of political differences," regardless of which party is going after the other. He also reiterated he had called for a nonpartisan commission to look into all sides of the 2016 election, which he said "has real problems."

Dershowitz told Bartiromo he voted for Hillary Clinton and "I'm trying my best to have a neutral approach to criminal justice."

Coincidentally, Huber's work might expedite the investigation into potential FISA abuses in the Justice Department, former U.S. attorney Bud Cummins told Bartiromo.

"The time element shouldn't be ignored," he said. "The appointment of a special counsel almost inherently adds a lot of time to these processes.

"But I agree with professor Dershowitz. This is exactly the right call by the attorney general. What he's trying to do is restore credibility to the process."

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