In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Sunday, Dershowitz acknowledged that Kavanaugh faced a trial in the court of public opinion, but argued that he should receive basic due process as if he were in a regular criminal court.
Being on the Supreme Court is a privilege, not a right. But being disqualified based on a false accusation of a crime would be a violation of the fundamental right to fairness.https://t.co/PZ3ZIlUwfw
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) September 30, 2018
How would you respond if you believed that your life work, family and integrity were being destroyed by false accusations? I called for a vote delay and full investigation. Let’s reserve judgment until that is complete.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) September 30, 2018
“In a nation dedicated to fairness and due process, explicit constitutional rights often serve as a metaphor and guide in the kind of basic fairness we demand even in nonlegal proceedings,” he wrote. “That model should operate here as well.”
He warned that the nation approaches an era similar to the early 1950’s when Sen. Joseph McCarthy accused multiple people of working with the Communist Party:
This is no longer about who would make the best Supreme Court justice. It is about the most fundamental issues of fairness this country has faced since the McCarthy era, when innocent people were accused of trying to overthrow the government and had their lives ruined based on false accusations, while being denied all semblance of due process or fairness.
He added that the nation risked entering a new form of “sexual McCarthyism” that could be prevented by ensuring “fundamental fairness.” “We must not go to that even darker place,” he warned.– READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz called on lawyer Michael Avenatti to provide proof of the salacious accusations of “gang rape” against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, “or else face consequences.”
In an op-ed published by The Hill this weekend, Dershowitz said that Avenatti, the celebrity lawyer of porn star Stormy Daniels, “whose judgments have proved questionable so many times,” may in fact be right to ask for a thorough investigation of his newest client’s “outrageous claims of multiple gang rapes” witnessed and participated in by Kavanaugh when he was in high school.
“These claims, typical of Avenatti, seem so incredible on their face that even partisan Democratic senators have generally stayed away from them,” writes Dershowitz. “Yet, if they are true, they are not only disqualifying for Judge Kavanaugh to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court, but they should result in criminal prosecutions of anyone and everyone who allegedly drugged young girls and subjected them to systematic gang rape on multiple occasions.”
(…)
“The current situation is untenable — for Kavanaugh, for his accusers, and for the American public. An accusation as serious as gang rape simply cannot be allowed to sit out there uninvestigated,” he writes. “Kavanaugh and his accuser are both entitled to a full investigation. If the investigation establishes that the accusations are true, there should be serious consequences for Kavanaugh. But if the investigation proves that the allegations are made up of whole cloth, or if Avenatti did not properly investigate them before making so serious an accusation, there should be consequences for both Avenatti and his client.” – READ MORE