“Alan Dershowitz will be able to move to discovery after surviving the first round of a defamation lawsuit against CNN,” reports the far-left Hollywood Reporter.
After the far-left extremists at CNNLOL blacklisted the famous attorney and Harvard professor, the hate network then launched a disinformation campaign to destroy his reputation, and God bless Dershowitz, he’s suing the smear merchants for $300 million, something a whole lot more people need to do.
Dershowitz filed the suit against CNNLOL in September of last year after the fake news outlet deliberately doctored video of what he said in defense of President Donald Trump during the first of the two hoax impeachment trials launched by Democrats against the former president.
In January of 2020, during the hoax-trial, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked if a president can be impeached and removed if his actions are motivated by his desire to be reelected. Here’s Dershowitz’s reply [emphasis mine]:
The only thing that would make a quid pro quo unlawful is if the quo were somehow illegal. Now we talk about motive. There are three possible motives that a political figure could have. One, a motive in the public interest and the Israel argument would be in the public interest. The second is in his own political interest and the third, which hasn’t been mentioned, would be his own financial interest, his own pure financial interest, just putting money in the bank. I want to focus on the second one just for one moment. Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest and, mostly you are right, your election is in the public interest, and if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment. For it to be impeachable, you would have to discern that he or she made a decision solely on the basis of, as the House managers put it, corrupt motives, and it cannot be a corrupt motive if you have a mixed motive that partially involves the national interest, partially involves electoral, and does not involve personal pecuniary interest.
…
If a hypothetical President of the United States said to a hypothetical leader of a foreign country: Unless you build a hotel with my name on it and unless you give me a million-dollar kickback, I will withhold the funds. That is an easy case. That is purely corrupt and in the purely private interest.
After the conclusion of that day’s hearings, CNNLOL launched its smear campaign by deliberately taking Dershowitz out of context. On top of maliciously editing his remarks to remove the portions where he clearly said a president cannot engage in illegal behavior, CNN’s talking heads and anchors came on to further disinform the public about what Dershowitz said.
Here are just three examples [emphasis is mine]:
Having worked on about a dozen campaigns, there is always the sense that, boy, if we win, it’s better for the country. But that doesn’t give you license to commit crimes or to do things that are unethical. So, it was absurd. What I thought when I was watching it was this is un-American. This is what you hear from Stalin. This is what you hear from Mussolini, what you hear from authoritarians, from Hitler, from all the authoritarian people who rationalized, in some cases genocide, based on what was in the public interest. — CNN’s Joe Lockhart.
[Dershowitz] seems to be redefining the powers of the president, redefining them towards infinity…. If you look at what [Dershowitz] says there it blows your mind; he says if a president is running for re-election because he thinks getting elected will help America, he can do anything, anything. presidency and America. — CNN’s anchor John Berman.
The Dershowitz Doctrine would make presidents immune from every criminal act, so long as they could plausibly claim they did it to boost their re-election effort. Campaign finance laws: out the window. Bribery statutes: gone. Extortion: no more. This is Donald Trump’s fondest figurative dream: to be able to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. — CNN’s Paul Begala.
In a March Newsmax column, Dershowitz tried to set the record straight:
A simple truth-check, if CNN had bothered to conduct one, would have shown that I said exactly the opposite of what CNN said I had said: I told the senators — both in my speech and in answers to questions — that if a president did anything that was “in some way illegal” or “corruptly motivated” or that involved “personal pecuniary.” benefit, he could be impeached, even if his motive was to help his re-election, which he believed was in the public interest. My point was that if a president did something entirely lawful that was motivated in part by helping his re-election, that mixed motive would not turn a legal act into an impeachable offense.
CNN turned my statement on its head, wrenched a few words out of context while omitting other crucial words, and lied to its viewers.
Yes CNNLOL did. And the transcript of Dershowitz’s actual words prove him correct, and now these godforsaken liars are being sued for $300 million and a U.S. District Court judge agrees he has enough of a case to move forward with discovery.
“CNN presented an abridgment of Dershowitz’ answer to Senator Cruz’ question,” the judge exlained. “The abridgment is not accurate, to the extent that it omitted a crucial qualification: that an illegal motive for a quid pro quo would be corrupt. As a result, the commentators’ statements — that Dershowitz believes a President can do anything, even commit crimes if it would help his re-election — are not based upon a fair and accurate summary of Dershowitz’ statement to the Senate.”
What’s especially revealing is that CNNLOL’s defense is not based on We told the truth! Instead, the fake outlet can only argue that the false statements were “opinions.” Well, first off, John Berman is an anchor, not a commentator. Secondly, it was an editorial decision on CNNLOL’s part to maliciously edit Dershowitz’s comments in a way meant to defame him.
Anyway, I doubt there’s much CNNLOL fears more than being at the ass-end of discovery at the hands of a brilliant mind like Dershowitz’s. My guess is that he will want all emails and inter-office communications involving the editing of the video of his comments, as well as producer notes to guests and anchors about how to angle the coverage of those comments. My guess is that Dershowitz is going to also ask to see a whole lot more stuff my simple mind could never conceive of.
Godspeed, Professor Dershowitz…
And let’s hope you set a shining example to others to finally hold these hate merchants responsible for their lies and smears.
In the immortal words of Martin Riggs, “Bury the fuckers.”
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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