Former Harvard law Professor Dershowitz: "Did Donald Trump Jr. commit a crime or merely political sin? It depends"

by silvermani Thu Jul 13, 2017 12:20 am

Perhaps mere collusion by a campaign with a foreign government should be made a crime, so as to prevent future contamination of our elections. But it is not currently a crime.

The first issue that must be addressed by Mueller is whether any existing criminal statutes would be violated by collusion between a campaign and a foreign government, if such collusion were to be proved? Unless there is a clear violation of an existing criminal statute, there would be no crime.

Obviously if anyone conspired in advance with another to commit a crime – such as hacking the DNC – that would be criminal. But merely seeking to obtain the work product of a prior hack would be no more criminal than a newspaper publishing the work product of thefts such as the Pentagon Papers and the material stolen by Snowden and Manning. Moreover, the emails sent to Trump Jr. say that the dirt peddled by Veselnitskaya came from “official documents.” No mention is made of hacking or other illegal activities. So it is unlikely that attendance at the meeting violated any criminal statute.

by Idéfix Thu Jul 13, 2017 12:55 am

He makes some good points. I have a small hope that our democracy becomes stronger as a result of the excesses of the Trump administration; all those mere norms that better mortals before him followed but he threw to the wind, they need to become laws. Like disclosing tax returns, putting all your assets in a blind trust, not granting security clearance to family members unless there is a clear Congressional approval, not colluding with foreigners in an election, etc.

The thing he avoids mentioning is that federal election law already prohibits the solicitation of anything of value from a foreign national.

by MaxEntropy_Man Thu Jul 13, 2017 8:08 am

It is almost an intellectual imperative with Dershowitz to disagree with his fellow liberal commentators. I have great admiration for him, nevertheless.

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Former Harvard law Professor Dershowitz: "Did Donald Trump Jr. commit a crime or merely political sin? It depends"

Former Harvard law Professor Dershowitz: "Did Donald Trump Jr. commit a crime or merely political sin? It depends"

Perhaps mere collusion by a campaign with a foreign government should be made a crime, so as to prevent future contamination of our elections. But it is not currently a crime.

Re: Former Harvard law Professor Dershowitz: "Did Donald Trump Jr. commit a crime or merely political sin? It depends"

Re: Former Harvard law Professor Dershowitz: "Did Donald Trump Jr. commit a crime or merely political sin? It depends"

Re: Former Harvard law Professor Dershowitz: "Did Donald Trump Jr. commit a crime or merely political sin? It depends"