Thread by @eshap

I just had a super interesting exchange with Alan Dershowitz via text messages.

After calling his office today and letting his asst. know I had some research questions for him, he called my cell.

He didn’t want to set a time to talk, so we went back and forth on texts. 1/

It should be noted that ANY time, Alan could have just blocked my number.

For example, once asked him about his curious stance that “lying to the FBI is not in fact a crime,” he could’ve just said fuck off, blocked me, and that would’ve been it.

That’s not what happened.

2/

When I asked him to defend his position that false statements to the FBI did not in fact violate Section 1001 of the US Code, he told me to read his OpEd in @TheHill. I did. It answered little.

I told him so. He asked me to Cute [sic] cases contradicting him.

I named 5.

3/

He started, for some reason, attacking Hillary Clinton, and claimed the FBI can’t ask questions for the sole purpose of catching someone in a lie.

I asked how he knew that was their sole purpose. He gave many answers, all of which amounted to “I just do.”

4/

I asked, even if his “gut” was correct (odd legal standard), wouldn’t an effort by a hostile power to compromise our National Security Advisor be an “extraordinary circumstance,” which he said would be an exception?

I asked several more times. He never answered the question.

5/

Again, he attacked Clinton. He’s obsessed w her.

He asked what I thought of the Clintons. I told him I thought Bill should’ve resigned (still do), and that if Hillz were caught knowingly lying to the FBI, she deserved what Flynn got. He simply pretended I didn’t say that.

6/

I then asked him if he was ever paid for anything by Trump.

He took a LONG time to answer.

He said he had never been paid by Trump. I said I hope that’s true, and admitted to being skeptical.

Alan Dershowitz then called me a bigot - more specifically an anti-Semite.

7/

It was CLEAR from go that I had an agenda. At any point, he could’ve disengaged. He did not. IMHO, bc hubris.

Yet, in light of news that @Mark_Penn wrote anti-FBI OpEds in @TheHill w/o disclosing his work for Trump, when I asked if he did too, Alan told me I hate Jews.

8/

His defense of Making False Statements are not well founded, nor supported by case law.

His proof they “entrapped” Flynn are based on his gut. EVEN IF his loophole were acceptable, he NEVER answered if an all-out effort to compromise the US NSA would be an exception.

Why?

9/

I’m not a lawyer. I’m a college drop out.

But Dershowitz did reply to more of my questions about all this, in one text exchange, than in all his TV appearances.

And in doing so, Alan exposed a defensiveness that is, well, curious.

@CNN, @ABC, @MeetThePress... your move.

Fin.