Alan M. Dershowitz

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Alan M. Dershowitz, 2009

Alan Morton Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938 in Brooklyn , New York ) is an American lawyer, university professor and publicist . He is one of the best-known defense lawyers in his country and has held the Felix Frankfurter Chair in Law at Harvard University since 1993 . Dershowitz has repeatedly taken a stand on political issues in his books and articles.

Life

Family and education

Dershowitz is the son of Orthodox Jews; his father founded a synagogue community and was its chairman. He attended Yeshiva University High School, where he was also fluent in Hebrew , and studied at Brooklyn College (graduated in 1959) and Yale Law School, where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal. He graduated from Yale in 1962.

Working as a lawyer

Dershowitz joined the faculty of Harvard Law School in 1963 after assisting Judges David Bazelon (Chief Justice of the DC Circuit in Washington, DC , which is legally responsible for many federal organizations in the USA) and Arthur Goldberg (Judge at the Supreme Court ) where he became an assistant professor in 1964 and was given a full professorship in 1967 at the age of 28. Since 1993 he has been Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law there.

Dershowitz is a specialist in revision procedures in criminal procedural law . One of his most famous cases is the Claus von Bülow case , about which he also wrote a book that was filmed in 1990 by Barbet Schroeder as The Sunny affair by B. , with Dershowitz himself in a small supporting role as a judge. Bülow had been accused of injecting his wife into a coma with insulin. Other cases and clients include Natan Sharanski , Harry Reems (a porn actor who was persecuted in 1976 for profanity), Michael Milken , Mike Tyson , Patricia Hearst , OJ Simpson (in preparation for an appeal that was no longer necessary), Jeffrey Epstein . About half of his cases are pro bono , that is, he defends in these cases for free, a "social service" common to many lawyers in the USA (even if not to this extent). In 2011 he advised the Wikileaks boss Julian Assange on legal matters and drew parallels with the Pentagon papers , where Dershowitz was also involved as a lawyer.

Journalism and controversy

Dershowitz is a successful author (also of novels) who likes to intervene in political debates or to initiate them. In particular, he is a committed advocate of legal positions and national interests of the State of Israel , which has led to debates, including: a. with the political scientist Norman Finkelstein , the left-wing intellectual Noam Chomsky , the ex-president Jimmy Carter (who had spoken of apartheid in connection with Israel ) and the political scientists John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt on their essay The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (2006).

For example, in an article of March 11, 2002 in the Jerusalem Post, under the impression of numerous attacks by suicide bombers on the Israeli civilian population, he proposed to announce a moratorium on razing small Palestinian villages from a predetermined list after each further such terrorist attack after the residents were given 24 hours to evacuate their village. According to Dershowitz, the automatism of destruction established in this way should lead to the Palestinian population distancing itself from the terrorists. The proposal sparked strong criticism; Norman Finkelstein , known for his anti-Zionist views, even compared this proposal to Lidice . Israel had previously pursued the policy of demolishing the homes of the families of identified Arab terrorists .

In his bestseller Chutzpah (1991) Dershowitz advocated more Jewish self-confidence in the USA. In Plea for Israel (2003) he criticized what he believed to be a one-sided anti-Israel portrayal of the Middle East conflict .

Dershowitz is an opponent of the 2nd amendment , which grants every American the right to own firearms, and advocates giving animals limited rights. In 2002, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , B. at that time in the USA more often practiced torture in the form of waterboarding in extreme exceptional cases in the USA legally allowed such. B. in the case of the imminent threat of a major terrorist attack with many victims, which he described as the "ticking bomb" scenario. However, their use should not be done in secret and on the instructions of police officers or agents, but openly and with the approval (torture warrant) of a judge, precisely in order to limit this to rare exceptional cases. He refused to legalize torture as evidence of guilt.

During her studies at Harvard University, actress Natalie Portman was Dershowitz's research assistant for his book The Case for Israel (German: Plädoyer für Israel ). Shortly after the book was published in 2003, political scientist Norman Finkelstein, who teaches at DePaul University, raised allegations of plagiarism against Dershowitz. Dershowitz denied the allegations.

In 2019, Virginia Roberts Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Dershowitz for sexual abuse and damage to reputation. Dershowitz responded with a counterclaim for damaging his reputation and deliberately inflicting emotional stress.

Comments on Trump and working for Trump

Dershowitz also fought against the election of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election in the United States, criticizing many of his actions, including his entry ban on Muslims , his lifting of protection for " dreamers " and Donald Trump's response to the far-right demonstrations in Charlottesville .

Despite his support for the Democratic Party, Dershowitz defended President Trump in some cases. In January 2018, he said that Democrats attacking the President's "mental fitness" were choosing a "very dangerous" line of confrontation. He saw "no reason" for allegations of obstruction of justice by President Trump in relation to the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey and opined that "collusion" made by Democrats and the media regarding Russian interference in the country 2016 elections are suspected to be not a crime. He published a book in 2018, The Case Against Impeaching Trump , in which he speaks out against Trump impeachment.

Dershowitz spoke out strongly against the criminalization of political differences and some legal investigations against Donald Trump, while also stating that Trump's alleged disclosure of classified information to Russia is "the most serious charge ever made against an incumbent president." Dershowitz has been criticized by some Liberals and praised by some Conservatives for his defense of President Donald Trump against demands for his impeachment and for his criticism of Special Counsel Robert Mueller .

Dershowitz defended Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against allegations by Julie Swetnick that he and Mark Judge were present at a party where she was gang raped. Dershowitz said on Fox News that "the affidavit is so profoundly flawed and so outrageous that any good lawyer, any good defense attorney would be able to take it apart in 30 seconds." Dershowitz asked Swetnick's attorney Michael Avenatti , who also represents Stormy Daniels , to withdraw the affidavit because of inconsistencies. Avenatti replied that these inconsistencies were trivial.

Dershowitz, along with others, recommended Donald Trump that he should reduce the conviction of entrepreneur Sholom Rubashkin for bank fraud (other charges were child labor and promoting illegal immigration) in the Agriprocessors case, which it did. Agriprocessors was the largest producer of kosher food and related meat processing and production in the United States at the time. Rubashkin was found guilty in 2009 and sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2010. The appeal in the Supreme Court failed. There was a campaign that saw the verdict as too harsh a punishment compared to other such cases, and Trump commuted the sentence in December 2017, so Rubashkin was released early.

In January 2020, he took on a role on President Donald Trump's defense team in the impeachment proceedings (impeachment) before the United States Senate as an expert on constitutional law. Principal attorneys are White House legal advisor Pat Cipollone and Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow . Dershowitz announced that he would adopt an argument by attorney Benjamin Curtis (later a Supreme Court judge) in the impeachment trial against Andrew Johnson that impeachment would require a criminal offense. The charges in the impeachment process are abuse of power and obstruction of parliament. The inclusion of Dershowitz was mainly due to pressure from Trump, who really wanted him on his defense team. Dershowitz, on the other hand, is said to have initially reacted negatively and emphasized in a statement on January 19 that he was not involved in the daily work of the defense team and only acted as a constitutional expert on a fundamental issue. In a CNN interview with Larry King in August 1998 about Clinton's impeachment proceedings, he said that there were no criminally relevant reasons for impeachment: It certainly doesn't have to be a crime, if you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president, and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don't need a technical crime , if you have someone who completely corrupts the office of president, abuses trust and poses a great threat to freedom; no technical crime is required).

On January 30, 2019, he left the team for family reasons, even before the proceedings were completed.

Publications

  • The best defense. 1982, ISBN 0-394-50736-3
  • Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case. 1985, ISBN 0-394-53903-6
    • The affair of Sunny von B. Close-up of a family: the Von Bülow scandal. Schweizer Verlagshaus, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7263-6638-5 ; Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1991, ISBN 3-404-11756-5
  • Taking Liberties: A Decade of Hard Cases, Bad Laws, and Bum Raps. 1988
  • Chutzpah. 1991, ISBN 0671760890
  • Contrary to popular opinion. 1991
  • Taking Liberties: A Decade of Hard Cases, Bad Laws, and Bum Raps. 1988, ISBN 0-8092-4616-3
  • Contrary to popular opinion. 1991
  • The Abuse Excuse: And other Cop-outs, Sob Stories and Evasions of Responsibility. 1994, ISBN 0-316-18135-8
  • Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the OJ Simpson Case. 1996
  • The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century. 1997, ISBN 0-316-18133-1
  • Sexual McCarthyism: Clinton, Starr, and the Emerging Constitutional Crisis. 1998
  • The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law. Warner Books, 2000
    • The emergence of law and order from murder and manslaughter. European Publishing House, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-434-50514-8
  • Supreme Injustice: How the high court hijacked Election 2000. Oxford University Press, 2001
  • Letters to a Young Lawyer. Basic Books, 2001, ISBN 0-465-01631-6
  • Shouting Fire: Civil liberties in an turbulent age. Little Brown, 2002
  • Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge. Yale University Press, 2002
  • The Case for Israel. Wiley, 2003, ISBN 0-471-67952-6
  • America Declares Independence. Wiley, 2003
  • America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation - from the Salem Witches to the Guantanamo Detainees. Warner Books, 2004, ISBN 0-446-52058-6 .
  • The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israel Conflict can be resolved. Wiley, 2005
  • Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights. Basic Books, 2004
  • Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways (Issues of Our Time). Norton, 2006, ISBN 0-393-06012-8
  • Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence. 2007, ISBN 0470084553
  • Taking The Stand , Crown, 2013, ISBN 978-0-307-71927-0
  • Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel's Just War Against Hamas , 2014, ISBN 978-0795344312
  • The Case Against Impeaching Trump , 2018, ISBN 978-1510742284
Novels

Web links

Commons : Alan Dershowitz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "A Modern Journalist" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 2011, p. 89 ( online ).
  2. ^ Alan Dershowitz: Debunking the Newest - and Oldest - Jewish Conspiracy. A Reply to the Mearsheimer-Walt "Working Paper". Harvard Kennedy School, April 5, 2006 ( PDF; 414 kB )
  3. ↑ Responding to Palestinian Terrorism . In: The Jerusalem Post . March 11, 2002. Dershowitz argues similarly in Why terrorism works.
  4. ↑ Finkelstein: Beyond Chutzpah. 2005
  5. ↑ Dershowitz, Want to torture? Get a warrant , SFGATE, January 22, 2002. He also referred to his book Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age and published Tortured Reasoning in Henry J. Steiner, International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals, Oxford University Press 2008.
  6. ↑ Wolf Blitzer : Dershowitz: Torture could be justified . In: CNN . March 4, 2003 (Interview with Dershowitz and Ken Roth)
  7. ^ Abigail F. Schoenberg: Professors Reflect on Natalie Portman. In: The Harvard Crimson. March 1, 2011, accessed March 16, 2013 .
  8. ^ Amy Goodman : Scholar Norman Finkelstein Calls Professor Alan Dershowitz's New Book On Israel a "Hoax" ( Memento November 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: Democracy Now! September 24, 2003
  9. ^ Attorney Alan Dershowitz countersues Virginia Giuffre for defamation and intentionally inflicting emotional distress , cnn, November 8, 2019
  10. ^ A b When Politics Is Criminalized . In: The New York Times , November 28, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2017. 
  11. ↑ a b Is Alan Dershowitz defending Trump? Not quite, he says . In: The Boston Globe , May 25, 2017. Retrieved September 21, 2017. 
  12. ↑ WATCH: Clinton Supporter Alan Dershowitz Loses It, Calls Attacks By Dems On Trump 'Very Dangerous' (en-US) . In: DC Statesman , January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2018. 
  13. ↑ Dershowitz: No Case For Obstruction Of Justice Against Trump, Would Be "Constitutional Crisis" . Retrieved January 12, 2018.
  14. ↑ (VIDEO) What's So Criminal About "Colluding" With Russia Anyway? Dershowitz Says Flynn Indictment "Strangest" He's Ever Seen (en-US) . In: FOX News Radio , December 1, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2018. 
  15. ↑ Review | A book about impeachment that Donald Trump likes so much, he tweeted about it ( en )
  16. ↑ Niraj Chokshi: Alan Dershowitz Says Martha's Vineyard Is 'Shunning' Him Over Trump (en) . In: The New York Times , July 3, 2018. Retrieved October 21, 2018. 
  17. ↑ Evan Mandery: 'What Happened to Alan Dershowitz?' (en) . In: POLITICO Magazine , May 11, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018. 
  18. ^ Daniel Chaitin: Alan Dershowitz: Any good attorney could tear apart Julie Swetnick's affidavit in 30 seconds . In: Washington Examiner , September 26, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018. 
  19. ↑ Avenatti client says Brett Kavanaugh was present while she was "gang raped" during high school (en) . In: CBS News , September 26, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018. 
  20. ↑ Megan Keller: Dershowitz: Avenatti may have 'ethical obligation' to withdraw Swetnick affidavit (en) . In: TheHill , October 3, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018. 
  21. ↑ Ron Kampeas: How Sholom Rubashkin's supporters got Trump to commute his sentence (en-US) . In: The Times of Israel , December 23, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2018. 
  22. ↑ Trump's lawyers call the charge "brazen and illegal," Zeit Online, January 19, 2020
  23. ↑ Jamie Ehrlich: How lawyer Alan Dershowitz plans to defend Trump during the impeachment trial , CNN January 20, 2020
  24. ↑ James Walker, Alan Dershowitz Said A 'Technical Crime' Wasn't Needed for Impeachment in Resurfaced 1998 Interview , Newsweek January 20, 2020
  25. ^ Alan Dershowitz quits Donald Trump's impeachment trial. In: Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd, January 30, 2020, accessed February 16, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Dershowitz, Alan M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dershowitz, Alan Morton (full name); Dershowitz, Alan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn