Alan Dershowitz Breaks Down What Trump Is Really ‘Looking For’ In His New Legal Fight

Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday on Newsmax that President Donald Trump is not primarily chasing financial gain in his latest round of lawsuits but rather seeking vindication.

Trump is seeking about $230 million from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to settle two federal damage claims over investigations spanning his first term and former President Joe Biden’s administration. Speaking on “The Record With Greta Van Susteren” about Trump’s efforts to pursue compensation over multiple investigations, Dershowitz said the president isn’t motivated by financial gain.

“He’s not going to get money in that order and he’s going to give it to charity. I think what he’s doing is looking for vindication,” Dershowitz told host Greta Van Susteren. “What he’s looking for is a judgment by an institution that says. ‘going after me for the classified material was wrong, going after me for the Russian collusion was wrong’ … and we’ll see what happens in the New York case because I think he should be vindicated in that case as well by the appellate courts.”

Dershowitz added that Trump’s pursuit of damages goes beyond financial compensation.

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“Of course, being a businessman for him, vindication means money. He’s going to give it to charity. But this isn’t about money. It’s about some institution saying you were treated unfairly. That’s what he’s looking for,” Dershowitz noted. “But in order to get even that, he needs to get a neutral objective arbitrator who’s prepared to look at the precedents and treat him like he’s any other person.” (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Predicts Supreme Court Will Deliver Shift In Election Law)

The DOJ launched its classified documents investigation in 2022, after FBI agents recovered boxes of materials from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. DOJ previously opened the Russia collusion probe in 2016, which concluded in March 2019 with no criminal conspiracy findings.

The DOJ appointed Jack Smith as special counsel in Nov. 2022 to oversee two federal investigations into Trump — one involving the handling of classified documents and another examining efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Judge Aileen Cannon later dismissed the classified-documents case on July 15, 2024, ruling that Smith was improperly appointed as special counsel.

In 2023, the DOJ filed a criminal case against Trump for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results through a conspiracy to obstruct Congress’s certification of the vote. Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the election-subversion case on Nov. 25, 2024, after granting Smith’s motion that cited the DOJ’s policy against indicting a sitting president.

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