• Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, has defended Trump’s interference in a recent Department of Justice case.
  • In an interview with Breitbart, Dershowitz argued that other presidential administrations had exercised control over the Department of Justice.
  • He claimed, “President Obama personally asked the FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of George Soros.”
  • Soros has long been a bogeyman for right-wing populists, with the Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for promoting conspiracies about the billionaire philanthropist.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, claimed in an interview with Breitbart that President Barack Obama once sought an FBI investigation on behalf of George Soros, the billionaire financier who has long been the focus of far-right conspiracy theories.

In an interview with the right-wing populist website on Sunday, the Harvard emeritus professor sought to defend Trump’s recent interference in the Department of Justice prosecution of one of his allies – a move former officials have described as a dangerous bid to erode the neutrality and independence of the US justice system.

“There was a lot of White House control of the Justice Department during the Kennedy administration, and I don’t think we saw very many liberal professors arguing against that,” Dershowitz said in the interview, which aired Sunday on SiriusXM.

"I have some information as well about the Obama administration - which will be disclosed in a lawsuit at some point, but I'm not prepared to disclose it now - about how President Obama personally asked the FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of George Soros, who was a close ally of his."

Trump has launched a series of public attacks on prosecutors who secured the conviction of his former adviser Roger Stone - on charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering - and on the judge presiding in the case.

Trump last week railed on the prosecutors' sentencing recommendation for Stone, which was then watered down by senior Department of Justice officials including Attorney General William Barr.

Trump has asserted that he did not directly ask Barr to interfere in the criminal case but had the right to do so.

On Twitter, Dershowitz's claims were widely shared by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists.

Dershowitz responded to an emailed request for further information on his claim from Business Insider with the message "the facts are in the FBI 302. I've heard no denials."

The offices for Obama and for Soros' Open Society Foundations also did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

"We've seen this kind of White House influence on the Justice Department virtually in every Justice Department," Dershowitz argued. "The difference: This president is much more overt about it, he tweets about it. President Obama whispered to the Justice Department about it."

Soros, who has donated billions to social causes, has become a bogeyman for far-right populists across the West, who have claimed he is at the center of a secret liberal plot to control the world.

The claims have been denounced by the Anti-Defamation League as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Rudy Giuliani

Foto: Rudy Giuliani.sourceShannon Stapleton/Reuters

The organization in December criticized Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, after he said Soros was "hardly a Jew" and spread unsubstantiated conspiracies that Soros was seeking to undermine Trump in Ukraine.

It then said: "In far-right circles worldwide, Soros' philanthropy often is recast as fodder for outsized conspiracy theories, including claims that he masterminds specific global plots or manipulates particular events to further his goals."

Dershowitz, who is himself Jewish, claimed to have a witness report backing his claim about Soros and Obama.

"I have in my possession the actual 302 form which documents this issue, and it will at the right time come out, but I'm not free to disclose it now because it's a case that's not yet been filed," he said.