Dershowitz on Corruption

I have reported on the Democratic lust to prosecute Trump, to overturn the election in the name of democracy. And I have noted that, on this matter,  Prof. Alan Dershowitz has been the voice of reason. Since Dershowitz is a life-long liberal Democrat, but also a man of integrity, we pay special attention to his views. More so when they defy the party line about Trump.

Writing for the Hill, (via Zero Hedge), Dershowitz argues against the notion that President Trump should be prosecuted for corruption:

My critics have argued for an extraordinarily broad definition of corruption capable of being expanded to fit nearly everything Trump has done — from firing FBI Director James Comey, to asking him to consider dropping the investigation of General Michael Flynn, to his son’s meeting with Russian surrogates.

Dershowitz is taking on the New York Times. It recently editorialized about Trumpian corruption:

This is the way the New York Times put it in its story about the court’s narrowing the meaning of corruption in the context of federal criminal law: “There was a time when political corruption might have been described — as a former Supreme Court justice once said of pornography — as something you knew when you saw it." In other words, it was in the eye of the beholder rather than in a precise statutory definition.

As for the law, the professor notes that the Supreme Court has addressed the question of corruption:

It ruled that not all political actions that smell or look like corruption can be prosecuted criminally without Congress specifically making such conduct criminal by precisely worded legislation.

As it happens, Dershowitz continued, civil libertarians were happy with the court’s definition. It prevents overzealous prosecutors from attacking their political enemies on dubious or even made-up grounds. In other terms, it protects democracy.

Now many of these same civil libertarians, liberals and even defense attorneys have forgotten how dangerous those bad old days were, and are demanding that President Trump and his family members should be prosecuted for corruption under the most expansive definition of corruption, despite recent court rulings narrowing that open-ended term.

“Just this one time, please. Just let us get Trump.” That is what the fair-weather liberals, civil libertarians, and criminal defense lawyers seem to be saying. “Then, we will return to our principles.”

But, the counselor replies, the law does not work on the “just this one time” exception:

There are no exceptions — no “just this one time.” The law operates on precedent. Today’s exception may become tomorrow’s rule. And even if it doesn’t, it creates a precedent for more exceptions, which may be applied to our side of the political aisle, as Republicans tried to do with Hillary Clinton.

Those who find the law too narrow in its scope, Dershowitz continued, need but craft legislation that changes said scope. That would solve  the problem democratically.