Trump 'Just Talked Too Much' About Classified Documents: Dershowitz

Veteran attorney Alan Dershowitz has deemed at least part of the unsealed indictment of former President Donald Trump to be "strong," arguing that Trump "just talked too much" about classified documents.

Dershowitz, who represented Trump during his first impeachment trial but says he is a Democrat who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, has largely supported the former president's claims that his escalating legal woes are part of a politically motivated "witch hunt."

In a Newsweek opinion article published Friday just before Trump's federal indictment was unsealed, Dershowitz argued that the indictment was "the most dangerous" in U.S. history, while predicting that Special Counsel Jack Smith had not gathered any "smoking gun" evidence.

During Monday's episode of The Dershow podcast, Dershowitz likened the indictment's purported July 2021 recording of Trump discussing a classified document with people who lacked security clearances—and saying that he did not declassify the material—to a gun with "Trump's fingerprints on it."

"Well, that's not a smoking gun, but it's a gun and it has Trump's fingerprints on it, or at least his voice prints on it," said Dershowitz. "We'll have to wait and see what develops and what the evidence actually shows."

Dershowitz went on to say that the federal indictment, which charges Trump with 37 felony counts, presents a "much, much stronger" case than the ex-president's indictment in New York, where he is facing 34 state felony charges of falsifying business records.

"The New York indictment is a joke," Dershowitz said. "It's not strong. It's weak, it's embarrassing."

"This one's strong," he continued. "This one does have allegations that have to be responded to."

Trump's attorney Todd Blanche declined Newsweek's request for comment.

Newsweek has also reached out via email to Trump's office for comment.

Dershowitz is not the only former defender of Trump who has called the Department of Justice's evidence against the ex-president "strong" after reading the unsealed indictment.

Trump's former Attorney General William Barr, who resigned from the administration after failing to find any evidence of massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election, delivered a significantly more grim assessment during a Fox News interview on Sunday.

"I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly," Barr told host Shannon Bream. "If even half of it is true, then he's toast."

"It's a very detailed indictment, and it's very, very damning," he added. "This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous."

Tim Parlatore, who resigned from the former president's legal team in May, said that the indictment contained "pretty strong" evidence for prosecutors during a CNN appearance on Friday.

Trump's former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney also suggested that the indictment was a major problem for the ex-president during an interview with conservative British outlet GB News on Monday.

"I think the chances of a guilty verdict are fairly high, and the chances of real jail time are pretty high," Mulvaney said, before pointing out that Trump could be facing a maximum sentence of more than 500 years.

Update 06/13/2023, 4:43 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to reflect that Trump attorney Todd Blanche declined comment.