The Democrats and other leftists in America during the Joe Biden administration have adopted a “double standard” of using laws against President Trump that they never enforced against their political allies, like Hillary Clinton.
That’s the opinion of Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter professor of law emeritus at Harvard and a longtime, well-known liberal commentator on legal issues, expressed in a column at the Gatestone Institute.
In fact, he said, “Those of us who — despite our opposition to Trump politically — insist that the same standards of civil liberties must be applied to him as to those we support politically, have lost friends, been defamed by the media and been cancelled.”
He continued, “This unacceptable double standard is so widespread that it endangers the rule of law and the historic role of neutral, non-partisan civil liberties that protect it from partisan weaponization.”
How have the leftists warped the standards to attack Trump? Multiple ways, he explained.
Most recently are the allegations created by the Biden Department of Justice regarding the Espionage Act of 1917 against Trump, which was the basis for an FBI raid of Trump’s home.
Trump supporters have bluntly stated it was a fishing trip hunting for anything that could be used to discourage Trump from running for office in 2024, as he’s the leading GOP candidate for president even before announcing.
Democrats already have staged two failed attempts at impeaching him and removing him from office, and also have a Democrat-run House committee investigating Jan. 6, which so far has failed to alter the political landscape in America.
Dershowitz explained, “In the past, many leftist civil libertarians have railed against the breadth and scope of this [Espionage] law, calling it repressive and unconstitutionally vague. Among the people who were prosecuted, indicted or investigated under the Espionage Act are progressive icons such as socialists Eugene V. Debs and Charles Schenk, antiwar activists Daniel Ellsberg and Dr. Benjamin Spock, whistleblowers Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, as well as many others who made unpopular speeches, engaged in protests or took other actions deemed unpatriotic by the government.”
But, he said, now the “shoe is on the other foot.”
“Now that the same law is being deployed against a possible presidential candidate they deplore — many of these same leftists are demanding that this accordion-like law be expanded to fit Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified material. The ACLU, which has repeatedly challenged the constitutionality and applicability of the Espionage Act to anti-government activities by left-wing radicals, is strangely silent when the same overbroad law is deployed against a political figure whose politics they deplore.”
Dershowitz explained the “same double standard” was evident during the FBI’s search of Trump’s home.
“Many civil libertarians have complained about the overuse of search warrants in situations where a ‘less intrusive’ and narrower subpoena would suffice. Even U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland acknowledged that the policy of the Justice Department is to use measures less intrusive than a full-blown search whenever possible. Yet he did not explain why a day-long search of Trump’s home was necessary, especially since a subpoena had been issued and could have been judicially enforced if the government was dissatisfied with the progress of negotiations. Again, silence from the ACLU and other left-wing civil libertarians.”
And, he said, it’s not just Trump in the cross-hairs.
“Then there is the manner by which Trump loyalists have been treated when they were indicted. Several have been arrested, handcuffed and shackled, despite not having been charged with crimes of violence and despite the absence of evidence that they were planning to flee. In my long experience, most other comparable defendants are simply notified of the charges and ordered to appear in court. Yet despite this apparent double standard, the left has been silent.”
He suggested Garland’s standard now suggests, “Due process for me but not for thee.”
“Perhaps the most glaring manifestation of the double standard currently at work is the different approach taken to the alleged mishandling of classified material by Trump, on the one hand, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on the other hand. No wide-ranging search warrants were sought for Clinton’s home, where private servers were apparently kept and subpoenaed material even possibly destroyed,” he pointed out.
There never have been any prosecutions for that “comparable mishandling” of classified information.
The idea of “one standard of civil liberties” appears to have gone missing “from recent attempts to ‘get’ Trump and his loyalists,” he said.
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