I LOLed on reading Dershowitz say, "It'd be a terrible thing to *criminalize* lies."
Dershowitz is well aware that *many* state/federal statutes criminalize lying. It's one of the more common things one can be arrested for.
Fortunately, *this* lie by Dershowitz isn't criminal.
Dershowitz is well aware that *many* state/federal statutes criminalize lying. It's one of the more common things one can be arrested for.
Fortunately, *this* lie by Dershowitz isn't criminal.
PS/ Examples: perjury; unsworn falsification; hindering apprehension or prosecution; obstruction; false report to law enforcement; making false statements; fraud by deception; and more.
@AlanDersh knows our society *functions* in large part because we *do* criminalize many lies.
@AlanDersh knows our society *functions* in large part because we *do* criminalize many lies.
PS2/ I sometimes think the better part of Dershowitz's career rests not on things he said in court or wrote in motions but blathered on about essentially unchallenged during cable appearances in which he was dealing with people who didn't know how egregiously full of sh*t he was.
PS3/ Who else could somehow get quoted neutrally in The New Yorker saying something every bit as stupid as:
"Violence is a terrible thing, Whoopi. But," he added, wagging a finger, "it'd be worse still to *criminalize* violence."
Dershowitz is the Tomi Lahren of Rudy Giulianis.
"Violence is a terrible thing, Whoopi. But," he added, wagging a finger, "it'd be worse still to *criminalize* violence."
Dershowitz is the Tomi Lahren of Rudy Giulianis.
PS4/ @AlanDersh is correct in saying that criminal defense attorneys like me and him have represented the guilty and the innocent alike. The difference: rich private attorneys like him *choose* their clients—and no criminal defense attorney should be socializing with his clients.
PS5/ Being a public defender—defending the indigent in court, on salary and at a judge's urgent request—is noble.
Being a private criminal defense lawyer is fraught with moral pitfalls one either takes care to avoid or one leaps into in ways that demonstrate a lack of character.
Being a private criminal defense lawyer is fraught with moral pitfalls one either takes care to avoid or one leaps into in ways that demonstrate a lack of character.
PS6/ I don't like to hear Dershowitz cloak himself in the nobility of criminal defense when he chose for many years to go about that sober work in ways that were amoral or—often enough—seemingly unethical. You don't get massages at a client's house. You don't vacation with them.
PS7/ A president is uniquely positioned to avoid questioning from federal law enforcement *and* use public statements to the media as a means to obstruct justice—for Dershowitz to pretend these unique circumstances don't exist is to protect the powerful at the expense of America.
PS8/ One thing I learned from practicing law for years is that sometimes you get treated roughly by peers because it's an adversarial system of justice, and sometimes you get treated roughly because you're a bona fide asshole. Dershowitz still thinks his situation was the former.
PS9/ Dershowitz *should* have and *could* have stayed a million miles from the Epstein case. He had money and he could choose his clients. Why didn't he? Had Epstein invested money for him? Was Dershowitz a witness in the case with something to hide? No answer here is a good one.
PS10/ So yes, under the circumstances, I'm deeply offended—and every criminal defense attorney should be offended—when Alan Dershowitz uses the principles enshrined in the Bill of Rights to justify a profoundly immoral course of professional conduct that's frankly *indefensible*.
