Special counsel John Durham's case against Igor Danchenko for allegedly lying to the FBI in an attempt to smear Donald Trump before the 2016 presidential election was "weak" and predictably failed, but it did shed public light on the "Russia hoax," according to legal expert Alan Dershowitz, on Newsmax.
"The case was not a very strong one," Dershowitz told "America Right Now." "The alleged statements made were ambiguous. So this was always a weak case. I was surprised that Durham brought it."
But the case did reveal the FBI offered up to $1 million for election campaign dirt on Trump, an assault on Justice Department ethics if not an assault on democracy, according to some legal experts.
"I think we learned some things: We learned about the Russia hoax a little bit more," Dershowitz told host Tom Basile, using Trump's own mocking term "Russia hoax" to describe the actions of the FBI and political operatives seeking to frame Trump for colluding with Russians.
But Dershowitz noted, a Washington, D.C., jury was never going to convict someone for lying to the FBI to get Trump.
"I predicted right from the outset that he would not win this case against Igor Danchenko, because juries don't like crimes that are based on simply not telling the truth to the FBI," Dershowitz said.
"People understand that when you raise your hand, you have to tell the truth; but when you're gossiping to the FBI and they're lying to you and they're exaggerating, it's natural for people to sometimes make statements that in retrospect seem untruthful."
Dershowitz has long warned Newsmax that the FBI is licensed to lie, making a lot of its law enforcement practices questionable in nature.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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