Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

 

God bless retired Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz – a staunch Democrat! This 79-year-old high-profile criminal and constitutional law attorney is one of — if not the best legal mind — contributing to the public debate concerning everything political swirling around President Donald Trump.

The Mueller investigation into Russia/Trump connections, former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the FBI, the firing of FBI Director James Comey, obstruction of justice accusations from congress and possible impeachment are all topics this seasoned lawyer comments on. Almost daily Dershowitz shows up mainstream media news outlets. He’s everywhere these days.

Dershowitz separates his politics from the rule of law as it is written. He is an expert when it comes to interpreting the U.S. Constitution. He firmly believes in equal justice for all under law. Everyone should listen to what Dershowitz says as a regular contributor to both liberal CNN and conservative FOX News. He separates fact from fiction, ignorance from knowledge and fantasy from reality. There’s plenty of fiction, ignorance and fantasy going around the mainstream media coming out of Washington and New York City. Dershowitz — in his matter-of-fact way — makes more sense than any other commentator on TV, on the radio or in the newspapers. He always gets it right.
An example of Dershowitz’s legal brilliance is his statement on Flynn’s guilty plea for lying to the FBI and why Flynn was indicted in the first place by FBI Special Council and prosecutor Robert Mueller.

“Well, the last thing any prosecutor wants to do is to have to indict his primary witness for lying. Because if you indict your witness for lying, it really means he’s not useful as a witness, he has no credibility. I’m sure the prosecutor was trying to indict him for some scheme or conspiracy that involved other people in the White House, but there is nothing there, and he had to, finally come down and indict him for lying, which makes him a useless witness,” said Dershowitz on Fox News’ Fox & Friends. “So, this is not a show of strength by the prosecutor. It’s a show of weakness. It’s a show that they really have nothing on anybody above Flynn and that Flynn made the terrible mistake about lying about something he could have told the truth about. Because the two things he lied about were perfectly lawful and perfectly proper for somebody to do during the transition (after Trump won the presidency). And so, I think it really reflects a weakness, not a strength in Mueller’s prosecution … So, if I’m a defense lawyer, I have no trouble destroying his (Flynn’s) credibility on the witness stand.”

On calls for President Trump to be investigated for obstruction of justice claims by members of the U.S. Congress Dershowitz gave the following statement this week.

“You cannot charge a president with obstruction of justice for exercising his constitutional right to fire Comey and his constitutional authority to tell the Justice Department who to investigate, who not to investigate. For obstruction of justice by the president, you need clearly illegal acts. The president could’ve pardoned Flynn if he were really thinking about trying to end this investigation. He would’ve pardoned Flynn and then Flynn wouldn’t be cooperating with the other side and the president would’ve had the complete authority to do so. So I think the fact that the president hasn’t pardoned Flynn even though he has the power to do so is very good evidence that there’s no obstruction of justice going on here.”

On the one hand Dershowitz supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential run in 2008 and President Obama’s 2012 second-term victory. On the other hand Dershowitz — who is Jewish — is a strong supporter of Israel and a leading opponent of Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal. He supports President Trump’s controversial desire to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the capitol city of Israel, where also the militant Sunni Islamic Palestinians claim their capitol to be. The long and bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about territorial rights. Why not have the U.S. Embassy in the middle of the conflict probably doing more good than harm?
Dershowitz is the guy to watch amongst today’s political commentators, contributors and writers that say whatever they want proudly displaying their openly biased anti-Trump-pro-liberal, or pro-Trump-anti-liberal opinions. If one listens to CNN, FOX News and all the rest of them you’ll hear a crazy blend of controversy that gets confusing at times, but listen to Dershowitz and he makes perfect sense of complex legal-political issues that even a layman can understand. Senoir Dershowitz is King.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.