"The Trump team has to speak with a single narrative," said Alan Dershowitz, a legal scholar and Harvard Law professor emeritus. | John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu Dershowitz: Giuliani playing into prosecutors' hands

Legal scholar Alan Dershowitz said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s newest attorney Rudy Giuliani has made matters worse for the president.

The Harvard Law professor emeritus and informal Trump adviser added that Giuliani’s recent media appearances resulted in “a very bad week for the Trump team.”


“The Trump team has to speak with a single narrative. They have to get their story clearly set out. It has to be put in writing,” Dershowitz told Chuck Todd, moderator of NBC's “Meet the Press.” “It shouldn't be put on television shows off the cuff.”

Dershowitz, who has known Trump for decades and has become a high-profile defender of the administration amid the Russia probe, said Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney, should know better.

“This is the way prosecutors operate. But Giuliani knows it, too,” Dershowitz said. “And he shouldn't be playing into their hands."

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In a Fox News appearance last week, Giuliani contradicted months of denials by stating that Trump reimbursed his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump later said Giuliani needed to get facts straight. The former mayor then released a prepared statement seeking to clean up the matter.

Dershowitz said the week was not all bad for Trump’s legal defense, pointing to U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis’ grilling on Friday of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and whether its indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on financial charges fits with Mueller’s core mandate of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

I “think it was a very good week for Americans, because we now finally have a judge who's overseeing this,” Dershowitz said.