From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker, editor-at-Large of the Wall Street Journal.

Thanks very much for joining us. Please be sure to subscribe if you're not already at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and elsewhere.

This week, as Donald Trump's battle with the FBI and the Justice

Department reaches a new intensity over the search of his Mar-a-Lago resort three weeks ago,

I'm speaking with legal scholar and former Trump defender Alan Dershowitz.

Professor Dershowitz is a constitutional lawyer and former professor of law at Harvard University.

He was part of Donald Trump's defense team during the former president's first impeachment trial in 2020, though he points out that he's not a political supporter of Trump, in fact describing himself as a Democrat and having voted for the president's opponents in the past. Professor Dershowitz has been a prominent figure in many criminal and constitutional cases over the years and he's never been afraid to embrace controversy or indeed some would seem even notorious causes and defendants. Among those he's defended have been O.J. Simpson and perhaps most famously, Jeffrey Epstein. He's recently said he's become the latest victim of cancel culture as a result of his sometimes controversial action, saying he's been shunned by polite society. He's the author of many books, the latest of which is the price of principle, why integrity is worth the consequences.

And Alan Dershowich joins me now.

Alan, thank you very much for being here.

Thank you.

I've been shunned by impolite society, not polite society.

And not only have I been shunned, but the library in Chilmock has refused to allow me to speak after inviting me year after year.

They initially did not carry any of the books I wrote since the time I defended the Constitution on behalf of Trump. And when the library starts restricting free speech, we know we have a problem. Well, we might get in, I hope we've got time to get into a little bit of some of those troubles and some of the reasons you have become.

It's apparently a pariah to, as you say, members of impolite society and maybe some members of polite society.

But let's get straight on to this question of Trump now and his continuing battle with the FBI and the Justice Department. The very latest news overnight, we're recording this Wednesday morning. the latest news overnight. Tuesday night was a late filing on Tuesday from the Justice Department

in response to a motion from the Justice Department in response to

a motion from former President Trump who wants the appointment of a special master to review

the documents, the Justice Department responded to that with a very lengthy and detailed account

of its investigation and indeed of the timeline of the investigation that's been going on over

these documents that President Trump is alleged to have taken, according to the Justice Department, perhaps unlawfully.

And Alan, let me start by asking you this. So again, this latest motion said last night that, and I quote the Wall Street Journal's reporting here today,

...