Nancy Gertner Schools Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh (and Alan Dershowitz)

Because I do not often watch Fox News, I was unaware of the latest accusations against Special Counsel Robert Mueller.  It seems that Sean Hannity, and others, have asserted that Mueller, as the U.S. Attorney in Boston, had been responsible for the false convictions and sentences of four innocent men (two of whom died in prison) in one of the worst scandals in FBI history.  According to Hannity, “Robert Mueller was the U.S. attorney in charge while these men were rotting in prison while certain agents in the F.B.I. under Mueller covered up the truth.”

But Hannity, who denies that he is a journalist, did not dig up the story on his own. He evidently got it from Alan Dershowitz, who said that Mueller was “the guy who kept four innocent people in prison for many years in order to protect the cover of Whitey Bulger as an F.B.I. informer.”  The same claim was later tweeted by Pres. Trump, who called Mueller part of the “Deep State crime families trying to take down the president.”

Rush Limbaugh also chimed in: "The men would have been cleared but Mueller and the prosecutors withheld evidence from the court . . . . Thirty years in jail, four innocent people, from the man of impeccable integrity inside the establishment swamp."

Nancy Gertner, now a senior lecturer at Harvard, happens to have been the U.S. District Judge who presided over the civil case that finally compensated the four innocent men (or their estates) for the frame-up. Writing in the New York Times, she says,

I was the federal judge who presided over a successful lawsuit brought against the government by two of those men and the families of the other two, who had died in prison. Based on the voluminous evidence submitted in the trial, and having written a 105-page decision awarding them $101.8 million, I can say without equivocation that Mr. Mueller, who worked in the United States attorney’s office in Boston from 1982 to 1988, including a brief stint as the acting head of the office, had no involvement in that case. He was never even mentioned.

There is much more in Gertner’s article, which can be read here, but suffice it to say that she completely demolishes Hannity’s (and Limbaugh’s) charges against Mueller.

Gertner goes a little easier on Dershowitz, whom she calls her friend, but it is sad that such an accomplished lawyer and professor made such a reckless accusation in a matter of extreme public importance. Dershowitz has evidently now walked it back a bit, but the damage has been done.

I don’t expect Hannity or Limbaugh, or Trump, to apologize to Mueller, but Dershowitz needs to set the record straight.

[Disclosure: My daughter clerked for Judge Gertner and worked on the case in question.]

Comments

[Anon]

Yet another example of the disgusting tactics of the far right extremists in charge of the US Government and media, to distort, discredit, and deny any facts that threaten their dear leader. They will stop at nothing to smear an honorable public servant in support of a dishonorable one. Tactics like this make me cringe to be an American.

In addition, I'm sure Hannity has been super sympathetic to wrongful prisoner claims in the past. LOL.

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

I would guess that if Mueller vigorously prosecuted the Black real estate developers "trespassing" at Starbucks just cause they had to poop, these gas bags would be all for it.

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

On my way to court this morning, I saw a modest rural house with a brand new industrial pole sporting a US flag and a giant blue TRUMP banner underneath. The message is clear, he is believed by a good portion of our fellow citizens who play smash mouth politics and will believe every word and action. They know for sure that the deck is stacked against them by us global elites.

[Jared]

Professor Dershowitz is fast becoming a laughingstock as he continues to show he is a Trump sycophant willing to parrot the Trump talking points. I guess it did not work as Giuliani got the job as Trump's lawyer. But Fox News pays well, even if you must sell your self-respect to join that bunch.

[Jared]

Professor Dershowitz is fast becoming a laughingstock as he continues to show he is a Trump sycophant willing to parrot the Trump talking points and attack Trump's perceived enemies. But Fox News pays well, even if you must sell your self-respect to join that bunch.

[r]

Ok - I read Judge Gertner's article and I agree with it.

However, I find the entire tone and a couple of specific sentences quite striking

In response to Dershowitz's statement that further investigation seems warranted because an "absence of evidence is not conclusive evidence of absence" Judge Gertner responds: "Perhaps. But an accusation of such gravity demands more."

Judge Gertner concludes her article with the following:

When Mr. Hannity and others say Mr. Mueller was responsible for the continued imprisonment of those four men, they are simply wrong — unless they have information that I, Ms. Balliro, the House investigators and the “Black Mass” authors did not and do not have. If they do, they should produce it. If they don’t, they should stop this campaign to discredit Mr. Mueller.

Wouldn't it be great if that same focus on actual evidence and resistance to smear campaigns were universally applied?

[anon]

Please give Alan Dershowitz the respect of his earned title: Torture Apologist.

Torture Apologist Alan Dershowitz lost what little positive reputation he had a long time ago, and since he's willingly gone on Fox on many occasions over the past few years to play a fake liberal, nothing here is that surprising.

[[M][@][c][K]]

With respect to Dershowitz's statement that further investigation seems warranted because an "absence of evidence is not conclusive evidence of absence" - any further investigation in the absence of any evidence would be a 'fishing expedition' which he seems, lately, to be prone inaccurately characterising investigations into Russian collusion campaign as - and then condemning.

Dershowitz seems unable to grasp -

• no evidence to justify any investigation + and an investigation nonetheless = fishing expedition

• evidence to suggest the illegal activity + an investigation into it = not a fishing expedition

It's really very simple..... and at this point perhaps an intervention is needed to explain to the Dershowitz that he's making a fool of himself - and a hack.