Today's episode takes an in-depth look at Donald Trump's favorite "liberal," Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz as seen through the eyes of one of his former students. We begin, however, with an update from the Paul Manafort trial, taking a look at the prosecution's strategy, witness list, and some preliminary rulings by Judge Ellis. After that, we dive very deeply into what looks like a very weird phenomenon:
why is Alan Dershowitz carrying water for a President whom he ostensibly opposes? Why is he
saying things that are demonstrably and indefensibly untrue about the law? Andrew has a theory. Mostly, though, he has stories and research... but they lead to a theory (we promise)! Finally, we end the answer to Thomas Takes The Bar Exam #87 regarding constitutional law and a state vs. the federal Confrontation Clause. Remember to follow our Twitter feed (
@Openargs) and like our
Facebook Page so that you too can play along with #TTTBE! Recent Appearances None! If you'd like to have either of us as a guest on your show, drop us an email at
openarguments@gmail.com. Show Notes & Links This is the article in The Hill indicating that the prosecution would, in fact, call Rick Gates; earlier, friend of the show
Randall Eliason gave a bunch of reasons why they might not. Oh, and Eliason also has you covered as to
why 'collusion' is, in fact, a crime. This is the
laughable Fox News report on how Judge Ellis hates the prosecution; for a dose of reality, you might want to check out
this other article in The Hill about how Judge Ellis chastised both sides's lawyers. If you missed it, this is
our Episode 107 where we tackled Serial. Here's
the PBS retrospective on Dershowitz and the OJ trial. Our Dershowitz story on 'testilying' begins with
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961) and the origins of the exclusionary rule; Dershowitz
coined the term 'testilying' in this New York Times article from 1994. Testilying is, of course, a consistent problem today (see
A,
B) -- but Dershowitz
hasn't spoken about it since 1998 (and even then, in an entirely different context). Instead, he
attacked Baltimore's decision to indict the police in the Freddie Gray case in 2015. Support us on Patreon at:
patreon.com/law Follow us on Twitter:
@Openargs Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/openargs/ Don't forget the
OA Facebook Community! For show-related questions, check out the
Opening Arguments Wiki And email us at
openarguments@gmail.com