Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz says that it is unusual for President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn to publicly ask for immunity from prosecution.
Dershowitz argued that Flynn’s request for immunity would normally be negotiated “behind the scenes” and not made public, as it was this week.
“What is shocking about this case … I can not for the life of me figure out the strategy,” Dershowitz said in an interview with MSNBC on Friday.
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“You don’t publicly ask for immunity. Especially if you previously said that only guilty people seek immunity. You negotiate behind the scenes,” he said, referring to Flynn’s comments on immunity in September.
“It’s possible that they were trying to provoke a public confrontation so that the public will demand that he be given immunity so that he can tell the story,” Dershowitz added.
Flynn was dismissed from his role in the White House in February after he misled Vice President Pence and other officials about his discussion of U.S. sanctions on Russia with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn’s lawyer said he would be wiling to testify before congressional committees and federal officials investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election only if he was granted immunity from “unfair” prosecution.
Dershowitz also warned that prosecutors can still prosecute someone who was under immunity by using the evidence they collected prior to the testimony.
“What the prosecutors can do is they can create a lock box in which they put all the evidence that they already have prior to his testimony given under immunity, and they can use all of that testimony to prosecute him,” he said.