Tuesday, February 09, 2021
Funny things Alan Dershowitz said
According to a great NY Times piece yesterday, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz got paid to use his influence with former president Trump to get clemency for a number of wealthy petitioners. It just brings to the surface the degradation of this crucial constitutional tool by Trump and those around him. The weird thing is that Dershowitz just doesn't seem to get what the problem is when clemency is doled out to those who pay the president's confidantes for clemency while 14,000 people who followed the rules (but are poor) get ignored. His clients included Ponzi schemers, child sex traffickers, and former Illinois governor Rod Blegojovich.
In short, he used his influence to seek freedom for the wealthy and connected. It's disgusting.
Here are some of the laugh-out-loud ridiculous things he told the Times:
“I’m just not a fixer or an influence peddler,” he said... in a story about him being a fixer and influence peddler.
He said that “the idea that I would ever, ever ingratiate myself to a president in order to be able to advertise myself as a person that could get commutations is just totally false and defamatory.” Note that he centers this on why he initially ingratiated himself to Trump-- which really doesn't matter in the larger grift. He had influence, and he sold it to the wealthy.
There is a right way to use clemency. I hope Joe Biden finds it.
