Constitutional scholar, attorney and one of the last honest liberals in America Alan Dershowitz had some interesting things to say on a recent edition of Newsmax's "Saturday Report.”
Commenting on the recent indictment of Democrat attorney Michael Sussman by Special Counsel John Durham, Dershowitz said, the indictment of Sussman for lying to the FBI is "about the weakest indictment" he has "ever seen" in his 55 years.
"This is an indictment that will never result in a conviction and should not result in a conviction," Dershowitz said. "If this is the best (special counsel John) Durham can do, after all this time and money, it was a complete waste of time.”
Professor Dershowitz went on to say, using FBI investigations to search for crimes is antithetical to the American justice system's purpose.
The indictment against Sussman is a shaky legal case that will be difficult to prove, according to Dershowitz, because it was not under oath and "a violation of civil liberties."
"It's a he-said, he-said dispute about precisely what was said during a meeting between FBI agents and the defendant," Dershowitz said. "He wasn't under oath.
If this indictment for lying to the FBI sounds vaguely familiar it should – because it is exactly the same kind of “he-said, he-said dispute” that resulted in the indictment of LTG Mike Flynn, and by which he was hounded out of the Trump White House, bankrupted, and pursued relentlessly by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan until he was pardoned by President Trump.
But the schadenfreude we experience in seeing Sussman indicted, and the pleasure here is real because Michael Sussman is not a nice man, but a key player in the evil cabal behind the whole Russia collusion hoax, should not blind us to the important part of Professor Dershowitz’s comments.
The important takeaway in Dershowitz’s interview with NewsMax TV was this: "The FBI's work model is to lie to people…”
Lying is very much a part, unfortunately, of dialogue between FBI agents and defendants, said Prof. Dershowitz, and the goal is to create crimes for which an otherwise innocent person can be indicted.
"Remember, too, these are crimes that didn't occur, before the investigation," Dershowitz said. "They're crimes that are part of the investigation. That is, they're generated by the investigation. They're created by the investigators.
"That's not the way our legal system should operate."
Perhaps this indictment is, as Prof. Dershowitz speculated, “the beginning of another process in which other people will be indicted for real crimes, for serious crimes," but we doubt it.
While The FBI's work model, may be, as Prof. Dershowitz observed, to lie to people, one need only look at the case of FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith to justify our cynicism.
Clinesmith, you will recall was the FBI lawyer who doctored an email used to help authorize a wiretap on Carter Page. It is hard to think of how many charges could have and should have been lodged against Clinesmith for his gross abuse of power – lying to his superiors and the FISA court, the trampling of Mr. Page’s civil rights, falsifying evidence, etc.
In the end he received one year of probation and 400 hours of community service — but no prison time.
Judge James E. Boasberg of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia said the destruction of Clinesmith’s career — and being vilified in a “media hurricane” — had already provided significant punishment and sent a deterrent message.
“Anybody who has watched what Mr. Clinesmith has suffered is not someone who will readily act in that fashion,” Judge Boasberg said. “Weighing all of these factors together — both in terms of the damages he caused and what he has suffered and the positives in his own life — I believe a probationary sentence is appropriate here and will therefore impose it.”
Watching what Mr. Clinesmith has suffered? Clinesmith now has his law license back and far from being a pariah has no less a publication than the Atlantic saying he didn’t deserve the piddling punishment he received.
It seems to us that Prof. Dershowitz is right – the FBI’s “work model” is to lie – but who gets punished in DC’s culture of lying is another story. Those who are on the inside receive little or no punishment for lying because they are protected by the DC establishment, those on the outside like Mike Flynn are hounded with Inspector Javert intensity, so we doubt Michael Sussman is going to flip on anyone important, let alone see the inside of a jail cell. And the FBI will continue to operate on the basis that they can lie to you, but you can’t lie to them.
FBI
Alan Dershowitz
Democrat attorney Michael Sussman
LTG Michael Flynn
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan
Russian collusion hoax
Mueller investigation
FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith
Carter Page
Special Counsel John Durham