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Dershowitz "Shocked" How Far the Left Is 'Stretching Existing Laws,'
Townhall.com ^ | July 17, 2017 | Leah Barkoukis

Posted on 07/17/2017 6:51:04 AM PDT by Kaslin

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, told Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro he sees no crime in Donald Trump Jr’s behavior.

“I’m shocked as a civil libertarian, and a criminal lawyer and a liberal at how liberals are, some of them at least, prepared to stretch existing laws, talk about treason, talk about other kinds of crimes that just don’t exist when it comes to the facts as we know them about this meeting,” he said. “So I’m going to keep insisting we stop accusing people of crime when there is no evidence of crime.”

Pirro followed up, asking if receiving valuable information from a foreign national could be prosecuted under campaign finance laws.

“Of course not,” replied Dershowitz. “If it were to be prosecuted the First Amendment would trump. A candidate has a right to get information from whatever source the information comes. It’s like The New York Times publishing the Pentagon papers case or the Washington Post publishing material stolen by Snowden and Manning. You don’t prosecute the newspaper and you don’t prosecute the candidate or the candidate’s son. If the material was obtained unlawfully you prosecute if you can the people who obtain the material. But there is a First Amendment right of a candidate to use information. So you can’t include information under the campaign finance law, that would be unconstitutional."

Pirro then wanted to know if there is any substance to the allegations by some liberals of treason and what, exactly, collusion means.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said last week that after the latest revelations about the meeting Donald Trump Jr. had with a Russian lawyer, that there was now “cold hard evidence of … the Trump family eagerly intending to collude possibly, with Russia … to influence American elections.”

She added: “It’s becoming clear … we have suffered a desecration of our democracy not seen since Watergate.”

Dershowitz offered some clarification.

"Collusion is not a crime unless it’s committing a criminal act. But the treason thing upsets me. When we with wrote our Constitution the British were using treason broadly against their kings. So the writers of the Constitution put a very narrow definition of treason. It is waging war against the United States. It’s inconceivable that anybody with knowledge of the Constitution or American history would argue a private citizen by securing information from for a campaign created treason,” he explained.

“It’s so dangerous to democracy to throw around these criminal law terms and accuse people willy-nilly,” he added.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ FULL ONE-ON-ONE EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO (7/15/2017)


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: alandershowitz; collusion; dershowitz; dncstrategy; theleft; treason; trumprussia
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To: Kaslin

So I am too!


21 posted on 07/17/2017 7:29:27 AM PDT by Rock N Jones
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To: TexasFreeper2009
Dershowitz "Shocked" How Far the Left Is 'Stretching Existing Laws


22 posted on 07/17/2017 7:31:07 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: avenir

“I’m trying to mentally prepare for the day we get handed over to the demonic Dems again”.

That is certainly a very scary thought. They would give us absolutely no quarter.


23 posted on 07/17/2017 7:38:48 AM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Hostage

I believe you are 100% right. I was about to post something similar, but you said it well. Thank you!


24 posted on 07/17/2017 7:42:03 AM PDT by generally ( Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that.)
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To: Kaslin

“I’m shocked as a civil libertarian, and a criminal lawyer and a liberal at how liberals are, some of them at least, prepared to stretch existing laws, talk about treason, talk about other kinds of crimes that just don’t exist when it comes to the facts as we know them about this meeting,” he said.”


While I admire your honesty, Professor, I think that you have missed the elephant in the room. For the past 45-50 years, the Left has been stealing the Democrat Party from the Liberals. You, yourself, are a dinosaur, one of the few remaining liberals left who isn’t peeing in his pants in some nursing home. Leftists don’t care about the rules - ANY rules - unless those rules serve their interests (which are mainly about obtaining power, and maintaining it once obtained). There is a BIG difference between liberals and Leftists, and you need to learn about it.

Its all about Leftism, Professor, not liberalism. Those few remaining liberals on Crapitol Hill are siding with the Leftists because they want to survive, politically speaking. They understand (as you apparently do not) that the Dem base is now Leftist and not liberal.


25 posted on 07/17/2017 7:46:38 AM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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To: Kaslin
Why are you surprised, Alan?

You, of all people, must know that truth and justice are of not even of consideration to the agenda-driven contemporary Left and, in fact, are held in contempt.

26 posted on 07/17/2017 7:46:46 AM PDT by Savage Beast (You can drive coast to coast without ever crossing a district run by Democrats! MAGA = Renaissance!)
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To: rktman

Maybe he will turn to the light side of the Force?

Others have done so when they realize that the Democrats are lying to their followers.


27 posted on 07/17/2017 7:51:40 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: FiddlePig

Surely he is exempt, lol?.


28 posted on 07/17/2017 7:54:23 AM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: MayflowerMadam

Hmmm, forgot about that altogether.


30 posted on 07/17/2017 7:56:45 AM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: Rennes Templar

It’s not just CNN it’s most of the MSM, it’s getting to the time where they should all be considered as the traitors they are.


32 posted on 07/17/2017 8:01:24 AM PDT by Isabella90
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To: Kaslin

“Making up” is the term I would use.


33 posted on 07/17/2017 8:07:24 AM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: Kaslin
“If it were to be prosecuted the First Amendment would trump. A candidate has a right to get information from whatever source the information comes... But there is a First Amendment right of a candidate to use information. So you can’t include information under the campaign finance law, that would be unconstitutional."

Dershowitz agrees with me!


I posted last week to the Rush Limbaugh Show thread:


The latest argument being floated is that receiving "dirt on Clinton" from Russia could be a campaign finance violation, because the law bans accepting a "thing of value" from a foreign source, and incriminating information on someone would definitely be of "value" to the winning candidate, ergo it is illegal.

This strikes me to be an absurd interpretation of what is a "thing of value." Consider this hypothetical example:

Suppose that in 2008, John McCain received a legitimate authenticated copy of Obama's birth certificate from the government of Kenya, which proves that Obama was born outside the United States to a foreign father and an underage mother. This would show Obama to be ineligible to be President under the Natural Born Citizen requirement.

Under this new working definition of "thing of value," would receiving this birth certificate from Kenya be illegal because of its obvious value to the McCain campaign?

Are we heading towards a world where knowledge is illegal if it comes from a foreign source and is threatening to Democrats?



-PJ

34 posted on 07/17/2017 8:07:50 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: onkelosII

We could demand that they be removed from our cable providers! 50,000 people would be a good start!


35 posted on 07/17/2017 8:09:54 AM PDT by F105-D ThunderChief (By the People, not By the Government!)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

There is a much more important item on the left ‘s minds.

That is the total destruction of all that is Clinton and the stench that will adhere to all leftists as a result. There is no talk at all of the coming assault on the whole rotten shebang. What is will not be. It will be dead.

The hue and cry is where is Sessions? He has no FBI director but must have once that assault begins. The case is so broad and so critical that the depth of the prosecution is without equal in our history.


36 posted on 07/17/2017 8:13:40 AM PDT by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: onkelosII

Good points. Thanks.


37 posted on 07/17/2017 8:19:59 AM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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To: Rennes Templar
"It’s all about a CNN-led media coup to take the Trumps out."
38 posted on 07/17/2017 8:34:33 AM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: Kaslin

Cue Claude Raines


39 posted on 07/17/2017 8:35:22 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (Ignorance is reparable, stupid is forever)
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To: goodnesswins; Cboldt
Democrats are abusing the blue slip process

Didn't the GOP try to do the same thing during the O regime?

As I understand it, neither a negative opinion on a blue slip, nor failure to return it, prevents a nominee from being confirmed. Politically, an unfavorable blue slip can have an effect, but a senator who is opposed to a nominee could speak in the senate, go to the press, and vote against, with or without a blue slip.

40 posted on 07/17/2017 8:42:28 AM PDT by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Why didn't the FBI examine DNC servers?)
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