Joy Reid: Dershowitz Focus on Racial Composition of Mueller Grand Jury “Absurd”
Reid guest: “Professor Dershowitz, you’re just wrong on that issue.”
On her MSNBC show this morning and while discussing the grand jury that Robert Mueller has impaneled in Washington, DC, Joy Reid dismissed as “one of the more absurd arguments I’ve heard” Harvard law prof Alan Dershowitz’s assertion that DC has “an ethnic and racial composition that might be very unfavorable to the Trump Administration.”
Paul Butler, a law prof at George Washington University, reinforced Reid: “Alan Dershowitz was my criminal law professor, but I’m here to teach him: Professor Dershowitz, you’re just wrong on that issue.”
So Reid and Butler are arguing that the racial composition of juries is irrelevant? Wait a second: isn’t the exclusion of African-Americans from juries one of the key complaints of the civil rights community in the area of criminal justice?
Here’s the New York Times worrying about the possible exclusion of African-Americans from juries. And here’s a long TV segment wondering about racial disparities in jury selection . . . on MSNBC!
So why is the race issue front and center on the one hand, but “absurd” when raised in the current case? Neither Reid nor Butler address that question.
Note: you’ll hear Reid chuckle as she describes Dershowitz’s argument that “DC has so many black people in it.” So concern for the racial composition of juries is “absurd” to the point of literally being laughed off. Good to know!
Note segundo: Reid opened the show with a clip of Stephen Colbert: “I’m going to say something right now something no one has ever said before—God, I wish I had jury duty! I’m available.” Don’t jurors swear to be fair and open-minded? Guess that doesn’t apply in liberal-land when Trump is the target.
JOY REID: one of the ways that Trump’s supporters and backers are trying to back him up is by saying the composition of this grand jury is unfair to Donald Trump. On Friday, on WABC, Alan Dershowitz, who’s been a huge defender of Donald Trump, claimed that, he told Rita Cosby that the racial and ethnic makeup is stacked against Donald Trump because DC has so many black people in it. That seems to me to be one of the more absurd arguments that I’ve heard against this grand jury process. What do you make of it?
PAUL BUTLER: Alan Dershowitz was my criminal law professor, but I’m here to teach him: Professor Dershowitz, you’re just wrong on that issue.
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Comments
Narrative, folks. Must stick with the narrative.
That’s correct. The rats of the GOPe need their democrat marching orders.
A grand jury is empanelled in the District of Columbia to investigate, apparently, all things Trump.
Jurors randomly summoned to serve are presumably selected from D.C. voter registration rolls.
In 2016, D.C. voted 93% for Hillary. That’s 9.3/10.
But the makeup of the jury pool should be of no concern to Trump?
WOW. That’s some lefty logic.
The problem with liberals is not that they’re wrong.
It’s that they’re so inherently dishonest.
Mark Finkelstein: isn’t the exclusion of African-Americans from juries one of the key complaints of the civil rights community in the area of criminal justice?
Wait, what? Your equating a racist history of excluding blacks from juries to juries that may have a mix of different races? Perhaps they should just strike blacks from the jury pool, as they did in the past.
Whether by invidious exclusion or other reasons, civil rights advocates decry the relative paucity of blacks on juries in trials of black defendants as a denial of trial by a jury of peers. Why wouldn’t that also be a problem, in their view, for the trial of a white defendant, whatever the reason for the disproportion?
How typical. For decades, I have said this:
“Being a leftist means never having to remember today the nonsensical cant you spewed yesterday.“
Evan3457: “means never having to remember today the nonsensical cant you spewed yesterday.“
If you can point to a statement we have made in the past that is inconsistent with our current views, we would be happy to respond.
Mark Finkelstein: Whether by invidious exclusion or other reasons, civil rights advocates decry the relative paucity of blacks on juries in trials of black defendants as a denial of trial by a jury of peers.
If you are referring to evidence that blacks are being excluded from juries because they are black, then yes, it still occurs.
No, he’s not. He’s saying that the racial makeup of a jury either matters, or it doesn’t, and is asking which does the left believe? Historically, the left has said it makes a difference, and now they’re arguing it doesn’t, because, it seems, that the potential racial makeup of a grand jury empaneled in D.C. is favorable to their agenda. So, for a temporary advantage, they’re willing to deny a principle belief they’ve stood on for decades.
Well said!
DaveGinOly: He’s saying that the racial makeup of a jury either matters, or it doesn’t, and is asking which does the left believe?
If you mean that the U.S. has a history of excluding blacks from juries in order to enforce white supremacy, then sure. That’s why the Supreme Court has found that the Constitution prohibits racial bias in jury selection. See Batson vs. Kentucky.
… but do they have indians (oh, wait Hiawatha Warren is there, sorry)…
The swamp is a guinea thing, to borrow from Marcus Mumford.
How easy is it to have your core principles operate like a weather vane. Which way is the wind blowing today? Which way would you like it? Nothing like tailor made morals.
The cancer Mueller must be fired immediately or Trump will not survive. Mueller is hopelessly conflicted and evil. Also, there is not even a hint of an underlying crime to justify legally his grand jury insanity in the first place.
Rosenstein must be fired too. He has it in for Trump. Note that Sessions’ statement of recusal and Rod Rosenstein’s written appointment of the Special Prosecutor are facially inconsistent. Sessions: “Having concluded those meetings today, I have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States.” 1) Matters have to be related to the campaigns, not the much broader directly arising from the investigation of Rosenstein. 2) Sessions is plural as to “campaigns”, meaning not just Trump’s, but Rosenstein singles out Trump.
This hoax is horrible all around.
So Trump makes an Oval Office speech to the People laying out ALL – EVERY DETAIL – of the enormity of this fraud, all of it, and then summarily fires Rosenstein and Mueller and all his merry men. Let all the effete Swampers moan – Trump was the winner, fair and square, and he should act like it. Andrew Jackson would. He also has the Presidential authority to do it. The people will back him, to any extent necessary. That WV speech was magnificent and he can transfer it to the venue of the Oval Office, and be rid of these vermin chewing at his Presidency.
I worry less about the Mueller investigation destroying Trump over nothing and more about how this country will be destroyed by this investigation and the Left’s rabid need for it to produce their desired results. Think of what would happen to the Democrats should the Mueller investigation come up with nothing or, worse still, indictments of Clinton, Comey, Lynch, or others.
Well, at least your objective. But you really need to pump it up. Your language isn’t nearly inflammatory enough.
YellowTail,
If you’re going to troll a blog, you need to up your game a bit.
“Well, at least your objective. But you really need to pump it up…”
So take more care in copying and pasting your morning emails from Crazy Pelosi.
I guess you didn’t learn about sarcasm before you left school.
As for cutting and pasting from Pelosi – why would I need to? You really don’t think Connivin Caniff is a bit over the top? Mueller, who was praised by both sides when he took the job, is “is hopelessly conflicted and evil”
Trump’s New Lawyer for Russia Probe Praises Mueller – Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/ty-cobb-praises-mueller-trump/2017/07/27/id/804124/ THAT’S NEWSMAX YOU AUTOMATON!
The proof of his bias in evident in his actions. By hiring a bunch of progressive fascist ideologues for his staff he proves to the world that he is dishonest.
You are begging the question.
No, he isn’t. He’s drawing conclusions from public evidence, and they’re not the conclusions he wanted to draw. Whether they’re correct is not clear, but they’re certainly reasonable.
The Great One speaks.
This putz couldn’t shine obama’s shoes (a very low standard, indeed) let alone Alan Dershowitz’s.
Fire Mueller and McMaster the same day.
rino’s probably love this grand jury, gives them cover when they decide to impeach DJT.
“Our hands were tied, the grand jury said he was guilty. We didn’t want to impeach but what else could we do? Rule of law blah, blah, blah.”
So lest they think they’re being cute, they need to remember not everyone is for rinoville and it’s denizens.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/08/03/democrats-dont-actually-believe-in-democracy-n2363433
Democrats Don’t Actually Believe in Democracy
(snip to the end of the article)
But of course you won’t – instead, you’re doubling down by trying to nullify the results of the election because you don’t like the fact that you’ve been rejected and that you’re out of power. Except we’re not going to simply shrug and go back to letting you dictate how we live.
Donald Trump is a warning. Trump is the best case scenario. If you somehow depose him via your smarmy shenanigans, what comes along next is really going to upset you. You need to understand something.
Trump is not our last chance. He’s your last chance.
Um, what? How could a grand jury ever say someone is guilty? That is not a question that even comes before them.
Milhouse, I believe that is called sarcasm. Or perhaps, exaggeration-to-make-a-point.
OK then, let’s have a Grand Jury consisting of White GOP voters since racial and Party affiliations don’t matter according to Reid.
An exercise to show the absurdity to this whole mess is to replace Trump with obama. Then change the grand jury’s location to Alabama with an all white Republican law team and jury selected by the white Republican special prosecutor. Does anyone think for one minute the msm would stand for this arrangement? Or the Demorat Party? But hey, it’s a weird white guy that we hate so none of this matters.