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Attorney Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Donald Trump's legal team, speaks to the press in the Senate Reception Room during the Senate impeachment trial at the US Capitol on January 29, 2020 in Washington, DC.
- Alan Dershowitz, President Donald Trump's impeachment attorney, defended the Trump's interference in recent Department of Justice cases in an interview with Breitbart.
- Dershowitz claimed that other presidential administrations had exercised control over the Department of Justice.
- He claimed that "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 Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for promoting conspiracies about the philanthropist.
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Alan Dershowitz, President Donald Trump's impeachment attorney, claimed in an interview with Breitbart that former President Barack Obama 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 Department of Justice prosecutions of his former aides - moves that former officials have alleged is 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 that 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.
In a tweet, the president asserted that though he has not asked Attorney General Bill Barr to interfere in a criminal case, he has the right to do so.
On Twitter, Dershowitz's claims were widely shared by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists.
Business Insider has contacted Dershowitz for further information on the claim. He did not immediately respond.
The office for Obama and for Soros' Open Society Foundation 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. The difference: This president is much more overt about it, he tweets about it. President Obama whispered to the Justice Department about it," claimed Dershowitz.
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 centre of a secret liberal plot to control the world.
The claims have been denounced as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories by the Anti-Defamation League.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Rudy Giuliani
The organization in December criticised Rudy Giuliani, who also works as Trump's attorney, after he claimed that Soros is "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."
Conservative critics claim that with his network of philanthropic and educational organisations, Soros is engaged in a covert plot to shape world events according to left-wing values. For critics, the claim echoes anti-Semitic conspiracies that Jews secretly control world events.
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 [witness report] 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.
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