Dershowitz: Cohen Doesn't Seem to Understand the Difference Between 'Wrong' and 'Illegal'

[Buy1Sell2]

Dershowitz: Cohen Doesn't Seem to Understand the Difference Between 'Wrong' and 'Illegal'
Warns against 'criminalizing political sins.'

December 14, 2018

Alan Dershowitz said former Trump attorney Michael Cohen doesn't seem to understand the difference between what's wrong and what's illegal.

The Harvard Law professor emeritus and author of "The Case Against Impeaching Trump" appeared on "America's Newsroom" Friday to weigh in on a new "Good Morning America" interview in which President Trump's self-described former "fixer" said that the president knew hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were wrong.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday for a range of crimes, including tax evasion, campaign-finance violations and lying to Congress.

When asked by host George Stephanopoulos if Trump knew it was wrong to make the payments, Cohen replied, “Of course,” and added that the purpose was to “help [Trump] and his campaign.”

"Reasonable people can disagree about whether it's wrong to pay hush money to somebody to stop them from disclosing alleged improprieties sexually. Reasonable people can say that's wrong or that's right. It's not illegal," Dershowitz said.

He explained that a presidential candidate could give cash to an individual and explicitly state not only that the payment is to buy their silence about alleged improprieties, but also that it is specifically designed to help their campaign, and that still would not be a crime.

"Whether you think it's wrong or right, I don't understand the case for how it's illegal," Dershowitz said. "If you look at the very, very complicated campaign laws, the one thing that comes out simply is that a candidate may himself or herself contribute as much as they want to a campaign."

He warned against "criminalizing political sins," arguing that blurring the line between "wrong" and "crime" endangers the rule of law.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/12/...mp-knew-payments-women-were-wrong-not-illegal

Excellent analysis by the professor. At this time, I really don't think it makes any sense to engage any of the lefties here as they are bereft of honest intellectual discussion

 

[piezoe]

This is going nowhere. Brad Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, don't see any campaign finance violations either:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...off-the-michael-cohen-case?platform=hootsuite

Cohen goes to jail in March. So I guess you're right. That is going "nowhere", as you say.

 

[Poindexter]

Cohen goes to jail in March. So I guess you're right. That is going "nowhere", as you say.

With Trump. Nothing of consequence. Despite the best efforts of police-state leftists.

 

[TreeFrogTrader]

Looks like Cohen might be going to summer camp next summer.

"voted by Forbes as one of the country's cushiest prisons"

Not a done deal yet but he has "applied."

Maybe I can get sent there. I am pretty sure they would have good wifi, and there are quite a few traders/wall street types there already- so it's all good. And being in a cell/room during market hours if you are still trading? Some days I might not even notice the difference, assuming you can still get good coffee. Sounds like getting a bagel there to go with your coffee would not be a problem- most excellent!

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-17/prison-where-michael-cohen-will-spend-next-three-years

 

[CaptainObvious]

Looks like Cohen might be going to summer camp next summer.

"voted by Forbes as one of the country's cushiest prisons"

Not a done deal yet but he has "applied."

Maybe I can get sent there. I am pretty sure they would have good wifi, and there are quite a few traders/wall street types there already- so it's all good. And being in a cell/room during market hours if you are still trading? Some days I might not even notice the difference, assuming you can still get good coffee. Sounds like getting a bagel there to go with your coffee would not be a problem- most excellent!

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-17/prison-where-michael-cohen-will-spend-next-three-years

He gets to pump some iron, get fit, work on his book and take a break from it all. Meanwhile some poor sap busted for a dime bag is doing hard time I some gestapo type penitentiary. Justice in America. No wonder the hood rats don't give a fuck.

 

[Buy1Sell2]

Hate to say this but --Thank God for Alan Dershowitz. ----Honest Democrats don't typically exist anymore---

 

[Tony Stark]

He gets to pump some iron, get fit, work on his book and take a break from it all. Meanwhile some poor sap busted for a dime bag is doing hard time I some gestapo type penitentiary. Justice in America. No wonder the hood rats don't give a fuck.

https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=G7000

Since President Richard Nixon declared the national "War on Drugs" in the 1970s, the American prison population has skyrocketed; the same is true of the numbers of people locked up in private prisons, especially since the 1990s. Over their history, private prisons have been controversial for several reasons, including in some cases their treatment of incarcerated individuals. Supporters, however, say private prison companies have shouldered some of the burden from overpopulated federal prisons.

In the 2016 election cycle, private prisons gave a record $1.6 million to candidates, parties and outside spending groups. That was nearly triple what they'd given in 2014 and more than double their contributions in the 2012 presidential cycle. Most of the increase came in the form of donations to outside groups, and Geo Group was responsible for most of that: It gave $300,000 to super PACs backing various Republican presidential candidates, including one backing now-President Donald Trump.






https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?cycle=2018&ind=G7000