Now that billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested by the Southern District of New York, it’s a little clearer why Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz is so desperate to keep the press out of his own court proceedings, something fellow Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe slammed him for on Monday.
Back in March, Dershowitz submitted a court filing asking the judge to shut out the press in a case which could reveal some embarrassing information about himself related to his past representation of Epstein.
According to the Miami Herald:
Two women — one of whom was underage — have said Epstein and his partner, British socialite and environmentalist Ghislaine Maxwell, directed them to have sex with Dershowitz, 80, and other wealthy, powerful men. Dershowitz and Maxwell have denied the claims.
Yeah, it’s pretty obvious why Dershowitz wants the media barred from the proceedings, and it’s even more obvious now that Epstein is under arrest and could provide damning evidence and testimony against powerful men he associated with, such as Dershowitz and President Donald Trump.
The problem is that barring the press would violate the First Amendment, which Tribe reminded Dershowitz on Twitter, even noting that his first Supreme Court case established that the press has access to the proceeding.
Press access to criminal proceedings is a core First Amendment right. My first Supreme Court argument established that: Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia 448 U.S.555 (1980). Any civil libertarian should know that. https://t.co/4NBNnF854b
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 8, 2019
Indeed, Dershowitz should know that. After all, he’s also a lawyer. It’s pretty safe to say, however, that he no longer cares about the law because it’s threatening to humiliate him and put him in a potentially precarious legal position. He has denied the allegations against him, but Epstein could flip on him.
But even if Dershowitz is innocent, shutting the press out of court proceedings is the same as censorship and he should be ashamed as a lawyer and an American for even suggesting it.
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