CNN legal analyst Jeff Toobin was a student of Alan Dershowitz at Harvard, but when it comes to facing off against Dershowitz's legal arguments this week, Toobin alleged they were flawed if not absurd.
Just before the Senate went for a dinner break, Dershowitz hit back against critics who said that no one agrees with him on his position that there is no such thing as an abuse of power. The former law professor explained that there was a lawyer in the 19th century who agreed with him, which Toobin found ridiculous.
"You can tell I'm right because no one has agreed with me for the last 150 years," Toobin summarized Dershowitz.
“But the idea he’s the only objective law professor in America, who was yesterday at the White House patting Secretary of State Pompeo on the back and celebrating the Israel deal, does not suggest he’s a neutral observer here,” Toobin also said.
Watch below:
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin went deep into the sealed documents Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is using to argue for keeping his case against former President Donald Trump in state jurisdiction — and uncovered what some of that evidence may be.
The case centers on dozens of felony charges of bookkeeping fraud, stemming from falsified records connected to the former president's alleged $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, facilitated through his old personal attorney Michael Cohen. Charging as a felony requires that Trump was committing the fraud in order to conceal another, underlying crime; Bragg has not specified publicly what crime that is; but some legal experts have speculated it could involve tax crimes.
Rubin, who posted her analysis on Twitter Tuesday, was covering a hearing in which Trump's legal team sought to remove the case to federal court — a legal gambit that would theoretically tie up the case for years as it works its way through the federal process.
"In their memo of law, the context makes clear what kind of materials the DA's office has shared. One of the sealed exhibits appears to be a $130k check from Cohen's shell company to Stormy Daniels, for instance," wrote Rubin. "Others include Cohen's sham invoices for his 'services;' the Trump Org.'s electronic accounting records reflecting each payment to Cohen; and 11 checks to Cohen, 9 of which were from Trump's personal bank account and signed by him."
IN OTHER NEWS: Democratic congressman mocks GOP colleague for saying he can't read a 99 page bill in 3 days
"And perhaps most damning, the sealed exhibits appear to include proof Trump paid 'other personal & other unofficial expenditures in 2017' from his same personal bank account," continued Rubin.
Trump previously used removal to federal court as a delay tactic in the E. Jean Carroll rape and defamation lawsuit, dragging the process out for years. His rationale is that the alleged offenses were committed while he was President of the United States. However, noted Rubin, "Alvin Bragg's team disputes removal is appropriate. Trump isn't a federal officer any longer. Moreover, the hush money payments and the related business records had no relation to his duties as president. So today, they filed their own motion for remand."
Following the release of the draft agreement to raise the debt ceiling, House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) went on Fox News to complain he didn't have any time to read it before the vote — even though, by any reasonable measure, he did.
"It's like the Pelosi days. You gotta pass it before you read it," complained Norman, referencing a quote former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made about the Affordable Care Act in 2009 that has frequently been taken out of context. "We ought to have a lot more time."
"But he's giving you three days to consider it," pushed back Fox anchor John Roberts, adding, "It's only 99 pages."
Following this exchange, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) took to Twitter to mock his colleague's complaint that reading a 99-page bill in three days is just too burdensome a task for him.
"Let’s do some math," wrote Lieu. "If GOP Rep Ralph Norman works 8 hours a day, that’s 24 hours over 3 days to read 99 pages. That comes out to reading a little over 4 pages every hour. And these are double spaced text pages."
"Alternatively, he can have AI summarize the bill for him in 1 min," Lieu added.
Norman, who faced national controversy after leaked text messages revealed he begged the Trump administration to declare "Marshall [sic] law" to prevent President Joe Biden from taking office after the 2020 election, appears to have already made up his mind against the bill he says he doesn't have time to read, proclaiming, "The two factions that are supporting this bill [are] China, because they're just buying more debt to control America, and the Biden administration, which, as the hearings are showing, is corrupt and compromised to China. Somewhere, somebody has got to stop it."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is attempting to "create the Army of the confederacy," according to an Iraq War veteran.
Veteran advocate and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Paul Rieckhoff, cast DeSantis' war on wokism in the military as an effort to rebuild the military with only white straight men.
Welcoming the panel Tuesday, following Memorial Day, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace couldn't fathom why a Republican politician would be going after the military or suddenly opposing the military because they accept LGBTQ+, women, and people of color into the armed forces and reserves.
"It's not going to win him a general election, that is for sure. I think that the GOP has become farther and farther right. The middle seems to be gone," said Rieckhoff. He explained that it might be popular among the far right to attack any institution that is embracing equality. "I think it is a losing general election strategy."
Republicans complained in February that DeSantis was overstepping in his war against equality.
Wallace asked if the military was considered "woke," but Rieckhoff said it's only progressive in the sense that it is always evolving.
"We talked about this last week with regard to Tommy Tuberville," he continued. "It sounds like they want to create the Army of the confederacy. Yeah, the Army now allows in women, and it is no longer all white, and it is moving forward, and that seems to be what they are attacking. I think they are making a really big political miscalculation by attacking the military. They are not going after Joe Biden, they are going after the military and that is one of the few institutions that has a high popularity rating. I think they are continuing to drive independents away."
Retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Amy McGrath noted that the idea of a woke military "isn't a thing." She called it a shame to see a presidential candidate would do that.
"It actually hurts our military," she explained. "Diversity and inclusion efforts have been going on for the past like 30 plus years. I'm a product, as somebody who has been a fighter pilot as a woman. I'm a product of these efforts. What these guys want to do is go back to pre-1990 when women couldn't do some of these jobs in the military. It is crazy. And it actually hurts us because, you know what, our military exists to fight and win the nation's wars, and we should have the best people in those positions. And we got to be able to recruit from everybody, from all walks of life. And that is what these efforts that the Pentagon is doing and have been doing for years, that is what they are doing. And to bash that is really just crazy on DeSantis' part."
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