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He supported President Obama and politically leans very much to the Left, but when it comes to the construct of American government, there are few better defenders of our constitutional system than Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.
And the good professor does not like what he is seeing and hearing in regards to all of this seething, politically motivated, irrational, media-generated hatred of President Donald J. Trump.
In a recent opinion column for Fox News, Dershowitz lambasted the Left-wing extremist “mainstream” media for getting just about everything it can wrong regarding Trump, his dealings with former FBI Director James Comey, his constitutional authority as president, and the distinct lack of evidence that the president has done anything illegal or improper since being in office (these few short months).
In regards to Comey, Dershowitz was quick to point out, during his recent high-profile testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee the former FBI director hit on a point the law professor has been making now for months: Namely that Trump, as president and head of the Executive Branch of government, has wide authority in how he manages the various agencies within it as well as prioritizes their objectives.
“Comey confirmed that under our Constitution, the president has the authority to direct the FBI to stop investigating any individual. I paraphrase, because the transcript is not yet available: the president can, in theory, decide who to investigate, who to stop investigating, who to prosecute and who not to prosecute,” Dershowitz wrote, noting that nearly all Democratic media pundits have attacked him for saying as much. (RELATED: Deputy AG: Be leery about what you read in the fake news WaPo regarding Mueller investigation)
“The president is the head of the unified executive branch of government, and the Justice Department and the FBI work under him and he may order them to do what he wishes,” he continued. “As a matter of law, Comey is 100 percent correct.”
That includes, of course, the entire Justice Department, under whom the FBI falls; so if Trump wanted to, he could either fire newly appointed “independent” counsel Robert Mueller, or order him to narrowly focus his investigation solely on matters related to alleged Team Trump collusion with Russia and Moscow’s reported interference in the 2016 election.
Already Mueller has expanded that mandate to include possible obstruction of justice by Trump…for doing what Dershowitz said he is constitutionally empowered to do.
“As I have long argued, and as Comey confirmed in his written statement, our history shows that many presidents—from Adams to Jefferson, to Lincoln, to Roosevelt, to Kennedy, to Bush 1, and to Obama – have directed the Justice Department with regard to ongoing investigations. The history is clear, the precedents are clear, the constitutional structure is clear, and common sense is clear,” Dershowitz said.
But nearly every TV Democratic pundit has argued that point, claiming that somehow, because it’s Trump, when he acts in the same manner, it’s nefarious, improper and impeachable.
That opinion, which is based on nothing more than unhinged Trump hate, is an endangerment to our civil rights and constitutional liberties, Dershowitz, who teaches the Constitution, observed. Because they disagree with Trump politically, these pundits are attempting to equate what he’s done, though no different than past presidents, as criminal, and thus all of the other politically-motivated investigations into his actions justified.
That’s dangerous, Dershowitz insists.
He also noted that Comey’s own behavior was questionable, if not illegal: Comey used a friend to “leak” information to the media specifically because he wanted to influence the appointment of a special counsel — which he got, and who just happened to be a former FBI director himself and a close personal friend of his.
“I think it is important to put to rest the notion that there was anything criminal about the president exercising his constitutional power to fire Comey and to request – ‘hope’ – that he let go the investigation of General [Michael] Flynn [Trump’s first national security advisor, whom he fired]. Just as the president would have had the constitutional power to pardon Flynn and thus end the criminal investigation of him, he certainly had the authority to request the director of the FBI to end his investigation of Flynn,” Dershowitz wrote.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
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