June 7, 2024

The Trump verdict is the worst verdict Alan Dershowitz has seen in his 60 years of studying legal cases.

"I still don't know what he was convicted of."

69 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...

If he thinks the Trump verdict is bad, wait till he sees the sentencing.

Achilles said...

We know what Trump was convicted of.

Trump was convicted for having an accountant enter ledger entries describing payments to a lawyer to secure an NDA as legal expenses.

Many, many other people have done this.

He is the only person in history to be convicted of this.

tim maguire said...

"No one in history" might be a little over the top. Maybe no one in American history. But otherwise, he sums it up well.

This is one of the consequences of the judge's instruction that the jury need not agree on an underlying felony--no one can even say that there was one and, if there was, what was it? No felony was proved at trial and no felony has been proved outside of trial. So what's left? Where is it? What is it?

Kevin said...

I don’t think Alvin Bragg knows what Trump was convicted of.

Meade said...

First, the punishment, THEN the sentencing!

rehajm said...

Ann nibbled away at the injustice, Dave did too and now Dersh. That’s three. How many lawyers are there again?

Achilles said...

RideSpaceMountain said...

If he thinks the Trump verdict is bad, wait till he sees the sentencing.

Pray they throw Trump in jail.

Pray with all of your heart.

We need 4 years of Trump throwing these assholes in jail while also fixing things.

The first four years Trump let them be. They took his kindness and they undermined him with Russian Collusion and Ukraine impeachment and COVID and other traitorous bullshit.

They also mailed in 20 ballots, stole the presidency, and have used their 4 years to open the borders, start wars all over the world, and purposely debase the currency.

They are vicious destructive insects.

We need Trump to stop trying to make deals with them and start throwing them in jail.

Hope they send him to jail so he can get this part straight. He is still acting like he wants to reconcile.

Chest Rockwell said...

Good breakdown here by a Yale law professor.

Bragg and Mershawn should go to prison for this.

Wince said...

Note to self: Leave the "memo" field blank when writing checks.

Meade said...

“This is one of the consequences of the judge's instruction that the jury need not agree on an underlying felony--no one can even say that there was one and, if there was, what was it? No felony was proved at trial and no felony has been proved outside of trial. So what's left? Where is it? What is it?“

People calling Trump a “convicted felon” either know the truth that he is not and they are lying or else don’t know the truth and are simply removing all doubt that they are misinformed dumbasses.

RideSpaceMountain said...

I don't know Achilles. We are in uncharted territory. Bayesian probability models are out the window right now. I can understand some people's desire to accelerate, but my tactical mind tells me to proceed with caution, and that Trump out of prison is a better outcome than in prison.

I and millions of others know what Trump jail time means for the country. I see your point, but I can't be enthusiastic about such a possibility, regardless of other externalities.

Dan from Madison said...

"Note to self: Leave the "memo" field blank when writing checks." This made my day.

Wa St Blogger said...

I'm hoping for our resident "crackerjack law degree" contributors to tell us the answer. They know for certain what was illegal and will be here soon to educate us. What an idiot the Dersh is.

s'opihjerdt said...

Usurpation.

Leland said...

As Fani Willis taught us, better to pay cash. Run [on] to the bank!

Enigma said...

Search for the recent meme trend: FAFO -- "F*ck around and find out"

Government by FAFO.

It took Republicans 50 years to effectively push back against Roe v. Wade. They'll just be getting started on retaliation a few decades in the future.

rehajm said...

"crackerjack law degree" contributors…

Man, it was only the crappy tattoos for me. Maybe one time I found a pinball game…

Big Mike said...

Easy peasy. He was found guilty of being Donald Trump, with aggravating circumstances including (1) being a Republican and (2) being more popular with voters than Joe Biden.

Althouse the law professor may believe I’m being specious, but ask yourself honestly whether Trump sees the inside of a courtroom in the absence of either of the aggravating circumstances,

tim maguire said...

Chest Rockwell said...Good breakdown here by a Yale law professor.

Thanks for the link. I'd heard it was going around, but I didn't listen to it until just now. Hew does a nice job of summing up the constitutional issues Trump's lawyers can put into their appeal. Even if Trump doesn't win on all of them (as he says, selective prosecution is very hard to prove), they are all legitimate.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

RideSpaceMountain said...

I don't know Achilles. We are in uncharted territory. Bayesian probability models are out the window right now. I can understand some people's desire to accelerate, but my tactical mind tells me to proceed with caution, and that Trump out of prison is a better outcome than in prison.

It will depend on what happens with their base. I doubt they would have even gone through with the trial if the AWFL's hadn't demanded it. If the AWFL's demand he go to prison, they may have to send him. The Dems are weak and panicking, but they're not entirely stupid. They know what imprisoning Trump would do.

Jersey Fled said...

“Note to self: Leave the "memo" field blank when writing checks.”

The one exception being that you can write “Loan Repayment” if you are a Democrat.

Pat said...

Let’s not forget that Dershowitz’s Epstein connections and that he is obviously compromised. He is not someone that can be trusted.

I do not understand how good people can call him friendly nicknames and care about his statements. He is toxic and hurts any cause by supporting it.

who-knew said...

I echo the "thanks for the link" to the Jeb Rubenfeld video.

narciso said...

as per the fec rules, that the expert was not allowed to testify to, that could be the only way one could label those expenses,

narciso said...

and so was the late ken starr, epstein hired most of the top shelf, that purdue had not,

Wa St Blogger said...

Let’s not forget that Dershowitz’s Epstein connections and that he is obviously compromised. He is not someone that can be trusted.

That confuses me. The people who can control someone with Epstein blackmail material are all on the side of the Democrats. If Dersh were compromised he would be finding ways to justify the verdict. His ability to speak against the prevailing powers suggests his independence.

Please explain your underpants gnome theory.

PM said...

Nice moment, esp when the two millennial twinkies lose their smug face.

Maynard said...

Pat sounds like a paid troll trying to slander Prof. Dershowitz.

narciso said...

they only know epstein and dershowitz on the cue card, so who defended prince andrew, or george mitchell or the late bill richardson, in re settlement issues,

Pat said...

@Maynard

If only. I just don’t like the feeling of having an untrustworthy scumbag on my side. It makes me uncomfortable because I’m confident he doesn’t have the USA’s interests in mind.

Achilles said...

RideSpaceMountain said...

I don't know Achilles. We are in uncharted territory. Bayesian probability models are out the window right now. I can understand some people's desire to accelerate, but my tactical mind tells me to proceed with caution, and that Trump out of prison is a better outcome than in prison.

I and millions of others know what Trump jail time means for the country. I see your point, but I can't be enthusiastic about such a possibility, regardless of other externalities.


The river of history will always flow. All popular vote social contracts end up with the 51% -> bureaucracy -> aristocracy -> elites/mandarin class -> fed to the guillotines.

But we have deviated from the riverbanks in a crazy way with Trump.

Maybe the intent of some benign higher power is to let the festering parasites off this time and run an experiment to see if they will just go away quietly and Trump is the tool.

I have said for years that the best course of action is for these evil shitheads to make deals with Trump and take this as a peace offering. But they just can't seem to grab that olive branch and they have resorted to censorship and political persecution.

I think it is too much of a risk to let these people hang around.

narciso said...

yes he defended two murderers in klaus von bulow and oj simpson, I held that against him for a long time, but all these bogus prosecutors like fitz like comey like mueller, like the one in the edwin wilson case, larry barcella who have hidden exculpatory evidence even for 20 years,

Achilles said...

Pat said...

Let’s not forget that Dershowitz’s Epstein connections and that he is obviously compromised. He is not someone that can be trusted.

I do not understand how good people can call him friendly nicknames and care about his statements. He is toxic and hurts any cause by supporting it.


Notice how there is only one name in the black book that comes out and it is only when that someone deviates from the Regime line.

narciso said...

we're shocked shocked gambling is going on here,

but as with mueller taking a bribe from banamex, judge gleason, going to bat for hsbc,
they only paid a little bribe to the justice department,

Wa St Blogger said...

If only. I just don’t like the feeling of having an untrustworthy scumbag on my side. It makes me uncomfortable because I’m confident he doesn’t have the USA’s interests in mind.

Untrustworthy? And you are uncomfortable. Uncomfortable enough to slander an individual without specific details.

I am confident YOU don't have the the USA's interest in mind.

narciso said...

kendall coffey cracked up on the willy and sal prosecution (the urtext to hiassen's striptease) but he took up the family of elian's defense, yes tell me more about those conscientous democrats,

narciso said...

is there anything amiss in his diagnosis of the case, no of course not,

Skeptical Voter said...

Easy Dersh--Trump was convicted of being a threat to the established order in the Swamp.

narciso said...

but we know these are implacable adversaries, the italian prosecutors spent 20 years going after berlusconi because he broke the left monopoly for a time, they are still after netanyahu, for reasons, but the initial case collapsed because of the pegasus surveillance,

narciso said...

we have seen the wheel of fortune against anti globalists and anticommunist figures all over the world, now run along now, and find some more gullible folks, like the atlantic,

mindnumbrobot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mindnumbrobot said...

People calling Trump a “convicted felon” either know the truth that he is not and they are lying or else don’t know the truth and are simply removing all doubt that they are misinformed dumbasses.

Either way, they don't care. The "get Trump at any cost" crowd are emotionally weak people.

Iman said...

One could look far and wide and still have much difficulty finding a more unlikeable person than David Pakman. What a D-bag.

Real American said...

he was convicted of beating Hillary.

Joe Smith said...

I listened to Megyn Kelly interview Dershowitz, Mark Geragos, and two other lawyers I believe, one of them fairly liberal.

All of them (including Kelly who is a lawyer herself) were astonished that this was even a case.

None of them could nail down what the charges were.

All agreed that it was being done to keep Trump off the campaign trail and to get the coveted 'Convicted felon' tag on him for propaganda purposes.

Biotrekker said...

Worse than OJ verdict???

Leland said...

Let’s not forget that Dershowitz’s Epstein connections and that he is obviously compromised.

Obviously? Dershowitz is like Kevin Bacon when it comes to connections. How does that make him obviously compromised? You've made two comments and other than disparaging Dershowitz, they contain zero information to substantiate your claim of any being compromised. Do better.

Jamie said...

Worse than OJ verdict???

I think the difference is that in the OJ case, there was clearly a crime.

Another difference; our system accepts the likelihood that sometimes a guilty person will go free, in order to protect defendants' rights and to prevent governmental abuse. What are you going to do about jury nullification, render juries completely irrelevant?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

"I still don't know what he was convicted of."

Truth: he was convicted of being Donald Trump

Legal: Dershowitz is in fact correct here, because no one know what the actual crime was that Trump was convicted of.

Which is why it's going to be tossed on appeal.

Trump's misdemeanor "accounting crime" magically became a felony by virtue of a second crime, "conspiracy to steal teh election".

But that crime required the jury to have found that Trump committed some other crime. The problem here is that the "some other crime" is one of three completely distinct crimes.

It's black letter law / solid SCOTUS precedent that when a jury is picking among multiple potential different crimes (whether it's teh same crime but on different days, or completely different crimes), the jury must unanimously agree on any "Crime" found.

Marchan didn't want to risk the jury coming back with the "wrong" results (he already knew the case would be tossed for multiple reasons), so he created fraudulent jury instructions telling them they didn't have to agree.

As such, no one knows what "crime" the jury picked, so no one knows what Trump as "convicted" of.

Other than "being Donald Trump"

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Jail time for Trump means SCOTUS jumping in, shutting down the whole thing, and removing the "convicted felon", all before the election.

Oh, and Democrats showing just how much they "respect court rulings" when they scream to high heaven about it.

So yes, the best thing for America is for Merchan to be stupid enough to try to throw Trump in jail

Oligonicella said...

The result of judges being empathetic. It was easy to see coming. That's why I said no those years ago.

rehajm said...

Dershowitz is like Kevin Bacon when it comes to connections.

I met Dershowitz at a Red Sox game. All y’ll- one degree thru me!

Interestingly Oracle of Bacon does not make a connection to Dersh but that’s me again: Kevin—>Kyra—->Me, when her niece lived in my building and she filmed a movie there —->Kevin Bacon

Freder Frederson said...

Obviously? Dershowitz is like Kevin Bacon when it comes to connections. How does that make him obviously compromised? You've made two comments and other than disparaging Dershowitz, they contain zero information to substantiate your claim of any being compromised. Do better.

I thought comments that contain zero information to substantiate claims were de rigueur on this blog. Michael K, Achilles and Drago are especially prone to publish comments that are bullshit or outright lies.

james said...

So if you tinker-toy enough misdemeanors you get a felony?

Achilles said...

Well.

Merchan just notified everyone that there was obvious juror misconduct.

The result of this is immediate declaration of mistrial and not even Merchan can do otherwise.

It seems that democrats are going to be off the hook for throwing Trump in jail.

Captain BillieBob said...

Dear Counsel:

Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System's public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention. In the comment, the user, "Michael Anderson," states:

"My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted...Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!"

The comment, now labeled as one week old, responded to a routine UCS notice, posted on May 29, 2024, regarding oral arguments in the Fourth Department of the Appellate Division unrelated to this proceeding. The posting, entitled "The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, will hear oral arguments this morning at 10," and the comment are both viewable at https://www.facebook.com/NewYorkCourts/.

Good times, good times.

Joe Bar said...

Well, the whole thing may go out the window. Judge Mechan sent a letter to both sides showing someone leaked the verdict a day before. Is this basis for a mistrial?

gadfly said...

What is all this bullshit about Dershowitz's opinion? Where is the question about Justice Clarence Thomas's incredible gift income total?

A report released Thursday by the advocacy group Fix the Court said the total value of 93 gifts to all of Thomas’ fellow justices between 2004 and 2023 were valued at $248,000, while Thomas alone received 103 gifts worth $2.4 million.

In addition to that haul, Fix the Court flagged another 101 “likely gifts” to Thomas worth nearly $1.8 million stemming from free luxury travel and lodging he received from billionaire Harlan Crow and others.

If those gifts are counted, Thomas’ 20-year bonanza jumps to nearly $4.2 million.

Paul said...

Yep.... might have a mistrial coming... Dems found out all they have done is make him stronger..“Oft evil will shall evil mar” - And the Democrats damage themselves!

"IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN YOU WILL MAKE ME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE." Ben Kenobi Trump And in this case... the stupid Democrats can't even strike him down.... TRUMP IN NOV!!! 50 STATE LANDLIDE!!!

Old and slow said...

It is not possible to leave the account field blank when printing a check from an accounting program. Also, it automatically fills in that field to whatever was last selected for the payee in question. Write a check payable to your lawyer and it will automatically code it to legal expenses unless you manually change it. But you all know this already, so did the jury presumably.

fairmarketvalue said...

"crackerjack law degree" contributors…

Who can tell us what felony Trump committed and the jury found? Beuller? Beuller? Chuck? Readering? Anyone?

D.D. Driver said...

The Goldman family on line 2, Mr. Dershowitz.

Mason G said...

"Merchan just notified everyone that there was obvious juror misconduct.

The result of this is immediate declaration of mistrial and not even Merchan can do otherwise."


OMG! No! Can't we just keep calling Trump a "convicted felon"? Can't we, huh?

Mutaman said...

D.D. Driver said...

"The Goldman family on line 2, Mr. Dershowitz."

Post of the day.

Mutaman said...

Meade said...



" People calling Trump a “convicted felon” either know the truth that he is not and they are lying or else don’t know the truth and are simply removing all doubt that they are misinformed dumbasses. "

This is the best you can come up with? Stick to taking pretty little pictures of the water, Meade.

Meade said...

Mutaman,
Fuckutaman

Immanuel Rant said...

So which category you were in made you mad, Mutaman?

walter said...

Ahem. Jabfly would like to change the subject.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Enigma said...
It took Republicans 50 years to effectively push back against Roe v. Wade. They'll just be getting started on retaliation a few decades in the future.

Dems filibustered Bush judicial nominees.
Staring in 2011, GOP returned the favor (didn't have 41+ solid votes until then)
Dec 2013 Dems nuked the filibuster for lower court nominees
2016 GOP used 60 vote requirement plus control of the Senate to bock Dem replacement of Scalia
April 2017, their first opportunity, GOP nuked the filibuster for SCOTUS nominees to put Gorsuch on the Court

Jan 6, 2021, Republicans had a mostly peaceful protest at Congress about teh Dems stealing the 2020 election
Since then, Dem shave done their best to hit people with worse punishments than Dem "protesters" get for violent riots, murder, and during cities

The Dems have informed Trump that either he becomes President in 2025, or else he spends the rest of his life in jail
They've told Republicans that there's absolutely no point to peaceful protesting.

I dont' know what the official "vote counts" will be in November.

But I do expect it with be FAFO time for the Democrats between then and Jan 21, 2025