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)
Homosexuality is deviant behavior? And homosexuals are also mentally ill? Screw you. We want what we want.
Marijuana is both addictive and harmful? Screw you. We want what we want.
They're truly evil, loathsome humans.
Take trump name out of it. X has russian spy material that is so ultra sensitive that it should not be handed to Y running for office and Z is notified of that fact. Its so spy like that It must go though cutouts with Z being told he will have to make decision on whether to show to Y.
When does it become illegal. Hand off?? Use???.depends on mAterial? ??? Or never?
“Stretching Existing Laws”
Are they not the “brain works” of the farm... who eat all the milks and apples for our benefit?
He’s been living in a bubble there in Cambridge, MA...the rest of us has been seeing this meltdown for 25+ years...
I threw out my cable box years ago, but I keep up with what CNN and the rest of the lunatic media monopoly have been doing via youtube.
I have been trying to understand why people pay so much for cable. I think the value of the content is wretched. Maybe families pay the price because kids and sports fans demand certain packages.
I have an antenna, so I can get all the free networks, but they are all biased. Even PBS. If PBS offered a job to Tucker Carlson, would he even be interested? Maybe the entrenched PBS staff and management would make his life miserable.
It’s only treason to those whose loyalties lie not with the United States, but with Hillary Clinton or some other private or foreign entity.
For a guy who is an expert on the law, WHY the hell did he vote for Hillary? Very odd why he would support someone who constantly breaks it.
At least he is an honest liberal. I doubt that you can say that you are an honest conservatives
I didn't follow closely, but as far as I know, either no or few persistent GOP obstructions of a named Obama nominee was done with a blue slip. The GOP allowed the nominees to get through committee, then "held them up" by not allowing cloture motions to pass. This is what encouraged Reid to use the "Reid rule" whereby cloture no longer applies to judicial nominees.
Yeah, but nail-studded baseball bats and baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire matter in putting down a coup...😀
I agree (assuming you've redefined the term "cake").
Second, anyone who would use "honest" and "liberal" in the same sentence is either deliberately obtuse or genuinely stupid. Which are you?
Don't bother responding. It's rhetorical. Besides, I'm putting you on ignore. But you have a nice day, hear?
He's also desperately trying to distance himself from the sordid Jeffrey Epstein / pedo island scandal, of which more later. Look up crooked con man Al Seckel.
Dersh has always been a committed communist.
I met him in the summer of 1973, when he was visiting Stanford for some legal workshop. He was arrogant, obnoxious, & rock-certain of his omniscience. Spent the afternoon listening to him bloviate. He ranted for a while about fighting the power of the State, and what a wonderful person Emma Goldman (the notorious anarchist) was.
His first wife, Sue Barlach was there with him. She was beautiful, gracious, & charming, as always. She was my cousin. I recall attending [pre-Dersh] Orthodox Passover seders at her home in Bayonne, NJ, with her parents Bernie & Ruth, and their long-time business partner, Bernie(?) Goldman & his wife. Goldman & Barlach owned a successful dry-goods store by that name in Bayonne.
I'm not certain of Goldman's first name. Think it was Bernie. I recall vividly that Goldman had an identical twin. Both brothers survived a Nazi death camp. They fled Europe immediately after the war. Bernie went to New York. His brother went to New Zealand & raised sheep, to distance himself as far as possible from Germany. They visited each other annually, rotating between NY & NZ. This story was told to me in great detail, several times. I met both of them at one of the Bayonne Seders. I mention this anecdote to add credence to my personal encounters with the Barlachs & Dershowitz.
I'm pretty sure the Goldman twins were not related to Emma Goldman, although "all the Goldmans are related," and we are all descendants of Noah. There are many Goldman families, & others who have changed their name to Goldman.
About a year after our Stanford meeting, Sue learned of Alan's extramarital affair (perhaps one of several). In anger, she destroyed some of his important legal case documents. Dersh beat her severely; she required hospitalization. Dersh obtained a divorce from her in 1975, stripping away custody of their two children.
Sue Barlach jumped off the Manhattan Bridge to her death in 1975. Might have been the Brooklyn Bridge. I have seen accounts claiming each.
Dersh wielded his formidable & ferocious litigious clout against national news outlets, including CNN, to prevent them from reporting / publicizing his vile behavior.
Dersh will rot in Hell for all eternity for destroying my cousin's life.
Since both are individuals of Very high intelligence, Alan Dershowitz should have a long talk with Mark Levin.
I would seriously pay to hear that discussion !
Receipt of the material isn’t illegal - unless the material itself is classified by the US Government. And even then, turning it in should take care of the issue.
If the intent in receiving the material is to commit a crime (such as blackmail), or if one *knows* that the information was illegally obtained, then seeking and receiving the info is likely illegal.
However - it is important to remember that opposition research is completely legal, even when done from sources outside the country. Use of false info (like the golden showers dossier) can be defamatory, but that bar is set pretty high in public life.
I am not a lawyer, but the above makes sense to me.
Goldstone indicated that info came from russian govt..and it was so ultra sensitive that it couldn’t be sent to trump..it needed to go to Jr. And then jr could decide
That right there should have put them all on high alert that they shouldn’t take this meeting..especially manafort
Jr is getting thrown under the bus.Now kushner and manafort are reportedly using the excuse they didnt read the whole email chain
Translator worked under Mueller in the past at the FBI
But information about a US candidate from a foreign government - unless classified or untrue - is not illegal to receive, even if deemed “sensitive”.
Kushner may have culpability, but there is no underlying crime to levy a charge against Jr, IMO.
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