The coup-plotter Mueller is panicking because he knows he has nothing. Nothing. President Trump is completely innocent of all accusations, yet the coup-plotter illegally continues his witch hunt while known criminals like Hillary, Comey, Lynch walk free! America is outraged!!
4
"When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose" (Bob Dylan-'Like a Rolling Stone').
5
Hannity, Limbaugh, et al never let the truth get in the way of a good smear campaign. Neither did Donald Trump.
35
Reply to Katy:
And what will happen when Sinclair (Fox on steroids) expands further? When the Foxes and friends take over the henhouse we are going to be in serious trouble. Ajit Pai (head of FCC) seems to be in Trump's pocket.
11
Thank you judge..
Pl Keep shouting from the rooftop ,keep writing ,keep talking the truth...Don’t let these Trump cronies spread vicious lies.
17
There is nothing worse, short of homicide, than lying and defaming an innocent person for the purpose of corruption. The "opinion journalist" and the radio talk show host, in spouting off about the FBI and conspiracy theories about a nonexistent deep state are lying outright and doing so for the purposes of making money. The president does so because he obviously has something to hide.
22
Mueller's time as FBI director was matked by his unprofessional decisions. completely botched the anthrax killer case, wasting more than $100 million in taxpayer dollars, destroying the lives of multiple suspects, and chasing bad leads using bad methods.
I don't know if he surrounded himself with toads as he has this past year or if he blazed these trails of failure all by himself.
6
Isn't this something that a libel suit could be started on? These public figures that purposely spread lies must be held accountable by the laws that exist.
Libel: "a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation.
synonyms: defamation, defamation of character, character assassination, calumny, misrepresentation, scandalmongering, etc."
27
If an attorney who has been as respected, admired, followed, and institutionalized as Alan Dershowitz finds it acceptable to lie and fails to correct said lie but merely to scold Hannity for not being forthright about his attorney/client relationship with Cohen, shows the state of our legal ethics. Both Cohen, Sekulow, and Dershowitz should be disbarred.
27
Wow...the trump defenders are really reaching now. The cohen investigation has them - and trump - quite frightened indeed. I suspect they remain incredulous, and no doubt highly infuriated, that Mueller referred evidence of possible criminal activity to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY.
Nice op-ed by Nancy Gartner, although I'm sure trump supporters will discount everything she's said and/or ascribe some sort of malicious intent to her commentary - if only because she was a Clinton appointee. Such is the nature of today's hyper-partisan politics.
28
Thank you for weighing in and adding a thoughtful and factual counterweight to the ongoing disinformation campaign against Robert Mueller.
30
McConnell’ s reluctance to protect Mueller relegates him to the same sleazy situation as Hannity, Cohen and Trump. He is just as corrupt as they are and probably needs to be investigated too. One does wonder. Shame and dishonor
20
wonderful piece. the problem, however is that the people who need to read this and accept it, don't read or watch anything other than fox...you gotta broaden your audience.
19
How come Mueller is not going after Andrew McCabe. As reported in today’s Washington Post, the IG report sent to the Justice Department recommends that McCabe should be indicted. Is the Mueller standard not to prosecute former friends and workers of James Comey? Is Comey next to be investigated by the Inspector General Office?
4
@Mr Peabody
That presumes that the IG report is itself not tainted. Given the level of executive and administrative interference into the case of McCabe, as well as well-advertised, prejudicial, attacks on McCabe by Trump himself over the past year, along with his penchant for directly browbeating Justice Dept officials 'protect him', like they're his personal law firm, that can't be assumed on its face. Thankfully, referrals are just that, referrals. They are not binding for prosecutors to pick up. With any luck none will, because it's highly unlikely any ACTUAL crime took place. Unless, of course, we're so far gone that people who's job description, as deputy director of the FBI, which includes releasing information to the press, can now be prosecuted for doing just that. After all, the man testified 3 times that he was, in fact, the person who allowed the release after some confusion about Comey's recollection of a phone conversation. If someone can be indicted for telling the truth 3 times, it begs the question: why bother asking 3 times? The indictment appears to have been preordained.
10
Mr. Trump and company have put us into their dark world of "alternate facts". “ 'Our president must embody respect and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country,' Mr. Comey told ABC’s chief ... 'The most important being truth. This president is not able to do that. He is morally unfit to be president.' ” This was confirmed when one of Mr. Trump's advisers used the phrase "alternate facts" to defend a clear lie by Mr. Trump's press secretary, and seconded by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump is morally unfit, period, no POTUS reference required.
18
Obviously, facts do not matter to Hannity and FOX or their followers. They are waging "InfoWars" with lies, propaganda and conspiracies with no basis on reality. I read this account with despair. If they are free to say anything, if the President can direct viewers to a television program that is lying to them, what hope can there be for an informed citizenry or a viable democracy? I read this article through to the end with my heart in my throat, hoping for some bit of hope, some pathway forward, some kind of solution, but finally to be told "they should stop." They have no evidence to produce and they are not going to stop. What is to be done about this?
20
I can’t wait to see what will come out about Hannity-Cohen. Hannity doeth protest too much. Come on NYT. Come on WP, expose him.
10
I feel like drop-by-drop, every day, Republicans are destroying this country. A Bronze Star Marine veteran with an impeccable reputation for public service and a top law enforcement who spent decades fighting crime, fighting terrorism, and fighting spies is being smeared now.
So are McCabe, Comey, Rosenstein and everyone else involved with the Trump investigation. Trump has fired many already including Yates, Comey, Bharara, and forced others out. He has spent years smearing judges, attorneys, and those who threaten him with truth, lawsuits, embarrassing disclosures about affairs, etc.
This is what dictators do. But why are Republicans joining in with their pitchforks and torches? When did they begin to viciously attack law enforcement and the justice system?
There are two standards now for them -- one that turns a blind eye to Trump's entire background from sexual assaults to fraud to hiding his tax returns to money laundering and Russians, that turns a blind eye to Sessions lying under oath about his contact with Russians, to candidates who have molested children, attacked women, served time, etc. -- and another standard that will hold any opponent of Trump's to levels that St. Peter wouldn't pass.
Republicans as a party now are unrecognizable.
40
smb...Thank You for this brilliant comment
10
The obvious question is - can American democracy survive this dishonest assault while simultaneously upholding the protections of the First Amendment? Free speech is an indispensable pillar of a free society but a democratic form of government entails certain reciprocal presumptions that preclude "anything goes" behavior that led in the last instance to Civil War.
Among those presumptions are: an informed and actively engaged electorate, a baseline commitment to the pursuit of truth among all parties, and a simultaneous commitment to the common good and the rule of law. Infringe on any one of these foundational elements and all bets are off.
That is the significance of Donald John Trump and his variegated band of supporters. They continuously thumb their noses at the foundations of our society. Fifty years after Ben Tre, South Vietnam these people are giddily pursuing the destruction of the democratic norm "in order to save it"! What an outrageous fraud!
At what point will Sean Hannity's commercial sponsors start pulling their support as they did with Laura Ingraham? It's about time.
9
Why is there no Congressional committee to investigate these bad actors: Limbaugh, Jones, Hannity, Ingraham, et al??
They poison the public well with their lies and they should be held to account for it.
10
Because the beneficiaries of Limbaugh, Jones, Hannity, and Ingraham's propaganda are running Congress. They're not gonna bite the hand that supports them in their gerrymandered districts.
8
Does anybody think that FACTS are going to stop these maligners? Roger Ailes basically set us on this path to immolation when he founded FOX news (which parents all the new White Nationalist Media) and the FCC lost its equal time laws under Reagan. We are seeing the burning of Rome, and I don't think it will stop until it is all ashes - and gilded, gated, communities. Then the real revolution will begin.
8
These people are not only liars. They are desperate. They are corrupt and unethical. They are malicious. They are willing to do absolutely anything at all. We see the same sort of thing every day among the comments on this site. Sometimes the comments are covered in a veneer of pseudo reason, artificial policy, and alternative facts. Sometimes the commenters don't bother. The aim is invariably the same: to protect an unfit president and his racist agenda--a president who, more likely than not, committed treason according to the everyday sense of that word.
8
What gets me is that pure lies against a person, in a public setting like TV and in print is slander. Yet the right wing pundits that have been lying for years in so many ways about so many public figures just get away with it. NY Fisherman's comment about Mueller shows how many do not do research and without any logical reflection just believe slanderous filth put out by Hannity, Colter, Limbaugh, Trump et al.
Only minds incapable of discerning lies from truth support Trump, Hannity, and the other cosmic liars.
Where is this supposed letter Mueller wrote?
Why, after all these years, is it still not found if he actually wrote such a letter? Here the judge in the case in question says it's all a smear. In dictionaries, a smear is "to damage someone's reputation through false information." FOX has been smearing political opponents(not a news network, what a joke) for over 20 years. Is this a good thing, to have Goebbels style propaganda on TV every night slandering politicos with a different view? Politics is dirty, but right wing media is supremely dirty.
Woeful, the millions who adore smearing, and believe it. These gullibles vote.
4
So, let me get this straight....our odious excuse for a president, who once paid for full page ads DEMANDING the execution of five innocent black men, is now accusing an evidently innocent person of falsely imprisoning four men? Can we say, "projection"?
100
The only collusion that we have seen was between the FBI, DOJ, the Hillary campaign and the Russians. The “insurance policy” that used the Steel Dossier, paid for by Hillary and the DNC, to get FISA warrants to spy on Trump and his campaign. Any information that was found was then passed along to the Hillary campaign and the media. The only obstruction of justice was for Hillary with the email scandal, Uranium One and the “pay to play” at her State Department. The only fixed elections were in the DNC primary that prevented Bernie Sanders from winning and in the general election with the FBI and DOJ working with the Hillary campaign. But Mueller will not even look at any of these crimes.
3
Thee men WERE imprisoned only to protect Bolger based on someone's decision.
4
So, Mr. Hannity, now that you have set the record straight about Mr. Cohen, what about this?
Reuters just reported that the Justice Department next month will release its report on its investigation of former FBI Director James Comey’s public disclosures about the Clinton email investigation and whether FBI officials in New York leaked information about investigations of the Clinton Foundation charitable organization and the discovery of a trove of Clinton-related emails. The FBI’s Southern Division of New York conducted the recent raid on the office of Trump’s Lawyer Michael Cohen. If the investigation reveals political motivation s have influenced recent FBI investigation, it could influence the Russian investigation.
2
I just finished reading an article about Robert Mueller and the FBI, their "botched" cases, e.g., Ted Stevens, the Anthrax case. There are many more. I don't profess to know what the outcome of this case will be but it feels very "political." Isn't the FBI supposed to be "political neutral?"
I'll wait for the outcome (if there ever is one) but I, for one, am very skeptical about this boondoggle.
4
Did the author cover cases the FBI handled well or only the "botched" ones? Did the author have a "political" agenda in writing the article? Do you know?
4
Another liberal idealist who desperately wants to believe that the truth still matters in American political trench warfare. It doesn't -- it's just the White Hats against the Black Hats, however you choose to define them. I suspect neither Vannity nor Plush actually believes this stuff, nor do most of their loyal minions. It's cannon fire to defend Fort Trump against the assault. No questions asked. Just pass the ammunition.
8
We need more retired federal judges like Nancy Gertner who will be very vocal and whose voices will not be drowned by the raving the ranting from the likes of Trump and Hannities. Let judges' voices be heard while Mueller himself stays silent, confident in his honesty, integrity and dignity.
13
I think Bob Mueller would make a great candidate for President of the U.S. He appears one of a select few in Washington that still maintains personal integrity and hence credibility.
19
New York Times v. Sullivan established the standard by which a public figure, such as Mr. Mueller, may support an action for defamation: actual malice–that is, with knowledge that a statement is false or with reckless disregard for truth. Since everything cited by Judge Gertner was in the public domain before Hannity, Limbaugh and, yes, Dershowitz, made their statements they should be sued for defamation. No need to expand the libel laws, this already fits. Of course that won't happen, but it should.
18
The fact that the writer was part of the case, doesn't bring an unbiased analysis. Even so there is the anthrax investigation he and Comey were involved in. It took ten years to end. One person commited suicide and another falsley got $5.82 million. After the case, Mueller refused to take part in a news conference about it,saying this " I do not apologize for any aspect of the investigation,” adding it would be erroneous “to say there were mistakes.” What a guy.
5
The judge was not "part of the case," she was the judge. That's the whole point of having a judge. There is every reason to believe she was unbiased and no reason to think otherwise.
8
The vast right wing conspiracy of which the Clintons complained certainly exists and is continually raising its obscene heads like the mythical Hydra. As does an enormous segment of the population that indeed constitutes a basket of deplorables. Let’s stop worrying about supposedly hurting the feelings of these snowflakes (wait, isn’t that us??) and call this out for what it is: a disgusting, vile attempt to subvert normal government processes by any means necessary.
18
I fervently hope that more individuals who are slandered by the likes of Sean Hannity and the thoroughly unprofessional people posing as journalists at Faux News will take action against them in the courts. Hats off to the brave Newtown CT families who have done so against the scurrilous and hurtful lies Alex Jones of Infowars has spread about the Newtown tragedy. Aside from not watching, we can all take action by letting advertisers know that supporting this kind of deliberate misinformation will be tolerated. Boycott them.
21
Nancy Gertner? Didn't she publish and op-ed in the Boston Globe shortly after the 2016 election describing herself as a "dear friend" of Hillary Clinton and declaring that she took Ms. Clinton's defeat "personally?"
3
The Justice Department's Inspector General today referred criminal charges against former FBI Director Andrew McCabe for lying under oath to Justice Department prosecutors. The referral relates to the FBI probe of the Clinton foundation, but the department could use the threat of prosecution to flip McCabe into providing testimony regarding potential FBI misconduct in the Clinton email investigation and the Russian investigation.
1
Excuse me all to-brast, but the IG cannot "refer criminal charges." They referred the matter for investigation, which was probably required by regulation.
Please keep going; it's cheap fun to to point out lying, not to mention pointing out that a referral regarding Trump's mouthpiece was precisely what's got you people in a stew.
4
a show that was promoted by a tweet by President Trump — “Big show tonight on @seanhannity.”
Isn't the press supposed to tell us what politicians to watch, not the president tell us what news stations to watch?
11
It’s pretty incredible that these people can lie about an American hero, Robert Mueller, and get covered in the media.
While my comment that Dershowitz needs to take a pledge of allegiance before smearing Mueller gets removed...
(Obviously no swearing, cussing, or language indiscretions)
10
What is really going to be most amusing is how fast Mueller and his crack hand picked team of investigators will plummet from high paragons of objective investigative virtue down to low down Republican partisan slime if Mueller finally announces the investigation is over and the finding is that President Trump and his campaign have been completely exonerated of collusion and obstruction. The heads of Dems like Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi along with their media psychophants like Chuck Todd, Rachael Maddow, George Stephanopoulos and dozens more - even some here at the NYT - will literally be exploding. It could be almost as much fun as election night 2016.
1
Well, at least you picked an appropriate nom de guerre.
Well done, you.
5
I imagine if he exonerates him the right will immediately tout his honesty. Kind of like when Comey announced the FBI was looking into newly discovered Hillary emails 11 days before the election Trump sing his praises then as soon as he was in the wrong side of Trump he was "slimeball James Comey". Even if Trump is exonerated specifically regarding Russian collusion it's clear he's guilty of many other things, which is why he doesn't want his "business" dealings looked into
5
There have already been several guilty pleas by Trump Campaign and Administration persons. Not sure how you can fantasize the “completely exonerated” scenario.
12
america is an autocracy now. Rule-of-law is nothing but a hold-over from a previous era. Anyone who thinks otherwise deserves what they will be getting in 2018.
#calexit - because decent people deserve better.
11
Wait - Sean Hannity is complaining about a wrongful conviction? Is he just trying to create the possibility, in his mind at least, that such a thing is possible? Is he foreshadowing his appeal process? Because when your best friend is a mob boss, chances are you are a mob boss too. Especially when you have the same lawyer.
I wonder what Mrs. Hannity knows. "Uh, honey, why do you have an attorney that is a fixer for men that are addicted to philandering?"
9
The facts do not matter to Hannity, Limbaugh, et al. They really do not care whom they slander, or the reputations destroyed by unsupported allegations. All that matters is that their listeners will take what they say as gospel.
12
The fact that the writer was part of the case, doesn't bring an unbiased analysis. Even so there is the anthrax investigation he and Comey were involved in. It took ten years to end. One person commited suicide and another got $5.82 million for being hounded and falsely accused. After the case, Mueller refused top take part in a news conference about it, saying with this " I do not apologize for any aspect of the investigation,” adding it would be erroneous “to s
The fact that the writer was part of the case, doesn't bring an unbiased analysis. Even so there is the anthrax investigation he and Comey were involved in. It took ten years to end. One person commited suicide and another got $5.82 million for being falsely accused. After the case, Mueller refused to take part in a news conference about it, saying " I do not apologize for any aspect of the investigation,” adding it would be erroneous “to say there were mistakes.” What a guy.
1
When did we the people begin to believe that love of party superseded love of country and it's principles of rule by law. Mueller should be able to hire all Democrats, all Republicans, all Independents, all one race, all one religion or all one gender and we should believe they will all stick to the facts and law.
I believe that party is not a religion. The president is not God. Politics is not religious doctrine.
10
Sean Hannity and Fox News are doing their very best to imitate Soviet style news reporting of the 1950's and 60's. It's pure fiction.
Of course it doesn't help the situation when you have a president who apparently believes that he can say anything, and if he repeats it enough times, and with the assistance of Fox News, his fiction will somehow transform itself into magical "facts" -- again, imitating a Soviet style of governance where whatever the "authorities" say is to be construed by the proletariat (the working class) as "truth", regardless of its gross falsity.
Is Trump, along with Fox News attempting to recreate the USA's system of governance where only the "authorities" are qualified to shape our reality? ...These are strange and dangerous times. I just hope that our system of government, with three separate but equal branches is up to the task of fighting this threat off.
10
Only in America can Hannity and Limbaugh, college dropouts, wield more influence with the masses than a judge.
15
Only with ignorant Americans can Hannity and Limbaugh wield more influence than a judge.
3
None of these talking heads, Limbaugh, Hannity, or Dershowitz will ever admit to telling lies or retract their statements in the face of evidence to the contrary. Not in the style of right wing pundits. They will keep repeating nonsense until enough people believe it might be true, that the real facts become irrelevant.
9
It is true, free speech or not, the Limbaugh's of the world are doing major damage to institutions in the USA, and getting away with it.......nothing they say is actually true or have any basis in reality, they simply go on making stuff up...
3
Now that Hannity has made it clear he consulted with Mr. Cohen on "real estate" matters, perhaps the money laundering bread crumb trail from Trump's luxury condo deals will bring him into the investigative fold? Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
5
I’m sure Mr Fix It Cohen did some fixing for Hannity.
1
Can't Robert Mueller sue Hannity for slander, or defamation, even while he's investigating all these issues with Trump? His investigation doesn't mean he gives up his rights to not be slandered, defamed, and libeled. Hannity and these people around Trump (including Sarah Sanders) are making terrible public accusations about Mueller that are not true. I would think he should have some legal way to fight back with something other than stoic silence.
4
Mr. Mueller should sue these so and so's for slander for all they are worth and demand punitive damages which are not covered by insurance. Yes Mr. Mueller is a public figure so malice must be shown before the suit can proceed and malice is these so and so's stock in trade and reason for existing.
5
When Judge Gertner tells you something, you can take it to the bank. Thank you for standing up for Bob Mueller and an evidence-based system, Judge.
14
Interesting read. Only one part gave me pause, when you said the informants' handlers "and their superiors" knew about the lie. Wouldn't Mueller be among those superiors?
2
Never mind what McConnell says about no legislation necessary to protect Rosenstein/Mueller because Trump won’t fire them.
I think the real reason McConnell won’t bring up legislation for a vote is that he is probably fearful Mueller might implicate other Republicans caught up in Trump’s web, and if legislation were passed solidifying the special counsel, McConnell would have no way to control it.
9
Thank you for this important information, Judge Gertner.
11
Some here are pointing to slander and libel and others point to their advertisers. By taking the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity to court you would give them the most stable soap box to use to continue to spew their venom. Fighting fires is best accomplished by removing the oxygen. And oxygen for these Pyros is money, go after their advertisers. And vote, register all you can and vote.
14
Thank you. Is it too much of a stretch to say that Hannity et al are -- as always-- just recklessly diregarding the truth?
4
Thank you Judge Gertner. Anyone who knows "the system" knows that Nancy Gertner is as zealous and as capable defense attorney as one might ever need. I doubt one would be better served by choosing Alan Dershowitz over Nancy Gertner when one needs the "best defense." But, unlike Dershowitz, Judge Gertner displays the added wisdom that comes from having served on the bench. Alan, among all of his capabilities, still often misses demonstrating a basic part of being an attorney, understanding all perspectives and understanding that, sometimes, you're wrong. The best attorneys can handle insecurity and humility; keep their arrogance in check. Alan still hasn't learned all of that.
9
Lying isn't protected in our First Amendment. Neither is yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Who has the responsibility to sue Fox News, Hannity, trump, Limbaugh for outright lies.
12
This is a horrendous, devastating damnation which needs constant repetition.
4
FACT: “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.”
1
Here's another fun one: Who was head of the agency during the Uranium One sale? Back when the FBI knew oligarchs were trying to buy access but green-lighted the sale anyway?
Can you please cite your source? "Facts" without justification are at best conjecture and at worst libelous / slanderous. The judge said there was no mention at all of Mueller during the entire course of the trial.
1
I would just like to ask that we stop referring to Fox as Fox News. At one time they were simply purveyors of right wing propaganda and RNC talking points.
They've now morphed into something far more sinister as they now primarily sell the most brazen, outrageous lies and pure fiction in service to a dangerous, dishonest wannabe dictator. This is what Limbaugh and the many like him have been doing for years. Why? Money, power and the ego trip it buys.
They are not only doing great harm to the country, but also to their brain-washed audience. This has gone on for far too long without consequence and it's past time to end it. Sedition, libel, inciting violence and defamation have nothing to do with "news".
18
Precisely! I call it Fox Entertainment (and might I add...for the deplorables).
1
Is there anything conservatives have to offer beyond dogma and lies?
14
Mueller has more integrity and honor in his pinky toe than all the MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporters put together.
19
Once again we see the rabid dogs of the Far Right yapping endlessly about things of which they have zero knowledge and even less experience. Do they ever wonder how it is that hate talk hosts claim to be telling the REAL story with no sources identified? No, they don't wonder; they just like to get outraged even though they're being told a completely fictional story posing as news. How sad for the poorly educated.
5
In an authoritarian culture, all that is needed to legitimize a lynching is a denunciation. It doesn't remotely have to be true, but it needs to be done. It is often done by a professional mouth.
Look at authoritarian societies all over the world, present and past, they all hold to it. Look at the Southern USA. A denunciation, that's all, and murder follows.
5
While it's great that Judge Gertner has published the true story of what actually happened with the FBI in this criminal case, based on the court records and real facts, unfortunately this is just like a small drop in the bucket compared to a relative tidal wave of lies and misinformation coming out of the right wing media about the Mueller investigation. Sure, probably millions of people read this article in the NY Times, but I'll bet many, many more millions watched Fox News, Sean Hannity's show and the other alt-right, Infowars, Breitbart and heard conservative talk radio, Rush Limbaugh's etc. false allegations about Mueller. Who will hear this faint whisper of the truth compared against the loud, blasting bullhorn being used by the liars, including President Trump and his 20 million Twitter followers? Trump's 35% to 40% base in the electorate probably did not read Gertner's article, and those few that did, don't believe it, as demonstrated by the comments section.
8
Judge Gertner, with respect, you're wasting your breath. Truth is not a consideration here.
2
This sideshow to discredit a decorated Vietnam veteran is shameful. What’s most alarming is that Alan Dershowitz is right in the middle of the campaign. Dershowitz’s bio at Harvard Law School states that he is “one of the most distinguished defenders of individual rights.” Well if Dershowitz is a supporter of individual rights, why have we not heard him admonish Donald Trump for taking out an ad in a New York newspaper claiming that the Central Park Five were guilty of rape even after DNA evidence exonerated them?
I applaud Judge Gertner for presenting this piece to set the record straight about Robert Mueller and to call out Sean Hannity and others who attempt to distort facts to smear the special counsel. It’s not like Mueller needs any protection, but it’s nice to have some cover sometimes.
9
Republicans don't know how to do anything but lie. They primary core "value" is dishonesty in all matters. Never vote for a Republican if you want good government and a good legal system.
5
When Hannity and Limbaugh show any concern in regards to Trump doubling down on the Central Park Five's guilt "14 years after their sentences were vacated based on DNA evidence and the detailed and accurate confession of a serial rapist named Matias Reyes" then maybe, just maybe, I will think they care about justice even a tiny bit.
But Hannity and Limbaugh could care less about the men who went to prison for murder they didn't commit. All they care about is smearing Mueller so their pal Trump can continue to do what they are accusing Mueller of doing. And I am not sure Trump really wants to be likened to Peter Limone, Henry Tameleo, Joe Salvati, and Louis Greco.
8
Interesting article. Yes its unfair to smear Mueller wrongly. However it is not unfair to ask how many "Brady Violations" his team has combined! Answer is "Lot's!". Hard to believe that his "stars" haven't been disbarred yet! Two wrongs don't make a right as the saying goes. His defendant targets may be guilty, but that doesn't mean his prosecutors (under his supervision) aren't also just to the left of guilty themselves. These things are not mutually exclusive. I for one don't want to keep seeing our rights eroded in the name of convicting the bad guys. Especially in politically motivated prosecutions. He and Comey and the rest of these abusive prosecutors can rationalize any behavior on their part as moral. There are very few jury trials in this country. Most people take a plea. That isn't because the prosecutors have these defendants dead to rights. It is because they blackmail everyone with harsher charges since they can find a crime to fit every circumstance. Everything is a crime somewhere in the USA, people just don't know it.
1
And yet oddly, you did not name so much as one of these innumerable and obvious "Brady violations."
Gee, I wonder why that might be?
9
Based on random news reports it appears that there are an inordinate number of attorneys working for the Special Counsel who are or were Clinton supporters, or at the very least have ties to the Democratic Party, so the bias in hiring is evident. As I have written before in 1 of the few submissions that the EB has deigned to publish from Alexander Harrison, unless you have an equal number of Dems. and Republicans on the team, you are vulnerable to accusations of favoritism.Almost a year and a half has gone by, and the hundreds of millions spent have produced nothing. Mueller, having been in the spotlight almost all of his adult life either as an attorney or a highly decorated war hero, is reluctant to give it up.Do the patriotic, phlianthropic thing Att. Mueller, and foresake this highly politicized role and request that future monies be donated to society's betterment, like fixing up sub standard housing, or reforming mandatory sentencing so that folks who have committed no violent crime but are condemned to life imprisonment can be freed. You are on a very expensive ego trip but one which does not benefit society as a whole.
2
"When Mr. ha nigh and others say that Mr. mueller is responsible....they're simply wrong."
The judge is too kind. They're simply LYING.
6
I am just furious that we as Americans can plainly see we have two-faced party-robots like Sean Hannity in the public domain, spewing un-truths to serve some self interest, over the public airways. The FCC rule of "fair and balanced reporting" must be revived.
5
Since when has the Republic party and its shills had the slightest interest in the truth? With respect to Robert Mueller (who has more integrity in his ring finger than Trump and his minions have in their entire bodies) these attacks aren't just alternative facts: they're outright slander. When his honorable work is finished, Mr. Mueller should sue them all. His principles will prevent him from doing so.
3
The fact that the writer was part of the case, doesn't bring an unbiased analysis. Even so there is the anthrax investigation he and Comey were involved in. It took ten years to end. One person commited suicide and another got $5.82 million for being hounded and falsely accused. After the case, Mueller refused top take part in a news conference about it, saying with this " I do not apologize for any aspect of the investigation,” adding it would be erroneous “to say there were mistakes.” What a guy.
1
In an age past, propaganda outlets depended on subscribers - the party faithful. Nowadays, whether you watch or listen or not, we all pay a piece when we buy the advertisers products. What a remarkable transformation of what used to be a fringe market and a remarkable transmogrification of the right to free speech. Huge salaries, no limits on what they can say. They’re laughing all the way to the bank. We’re the chumps who have values and who observe any ethical standards.
Judge Gertner makes a compelling case that former US Atty Mueller did not collude with the FBI or other elements of the Department of Justice when the latter trashed the Rule of Law and shattered the Constitutional rights of four men. Whether he should have known of this most egregious travesty of American Justice is another matter....In her rush to protest and protect, Judge Gertner provides a reference to her 7/26/2007 court decision that excoriated the FBI and awarded $101,750,000 to the plaintiffs and their heirs. That decision provides timely context to many of the issues regarding the Special Investigation and to the role and credibility of the FBI and DOJ in that investigation....The sordid details of the Peter J. LIMONE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant. does not reflect well on the conduct of our government. Gernter's decision begs the question, how many other travesties of Justice are carried out by our Government against innocent citizens of the United States?
NEVER TRUMP is not a defense of governmental criminality.
3
The role of Alan Dershowitz in the right -wing's fake news diatribes and its significance seems to be underplayed and underappreciated in these discussions. It happened before that Dershowitz demonstrated a succinct bias toward supporting right-wing agendas and pro-Trump sentiment that was immediately picked up by Hannity and his ilk. But I am astounded that such supposedly legal giant with Harvard pedigree re-gossiped the existence of a letter sent by Mr. Mueller to the Massachusetts Parole Board allegedly implicating Mueller in the scandal, when in fact there has never existed any evidence of the letter's existence. Only after Hannity disclosed this fake news did Alan Dershowitz bother to admit that there was no evidence of the letter. But the damage was done.
3
I think it's a little generous to say Hannity and others are simply wrong. I suspect it would be more accurate to go further and say they know they are wrong and are therefore simply lying.
3
The industrial campaign of misinformation will destroy our democracy. I firmly believe Trump was elected because we've watched a brutal consolidation of media power and many American rural areas are becoming literally "dying civilizations". (opium epidemic) Manufacturing and farming are mechanized. What does this leave our heart land? Not much. The unskilled worker then becomes drawn to the protections of facism. This perfect disruption is destroying our societal norms. I never thought I'd eventually consider moving to the liberal enclave of Berlin. We are witnessing a frightening evolution. This is happening quickly.
2
Thank you, Judge, for setting the record straight.
3
So Fox is attempting jury nullification by impuning the guy who is investigating The Donald. This is shocking information. The absurdity is that the only people who are subject to the Fox propaganda are the the same scared white people who voted for fearless leader because he could return "their" white-bread country to them. Hannity, Limbaugh, et al are preaching to the choir. Actual thinking people understand the difference between a good man(Mueller) and a bad man(Trump).
"When Mr. Hannity and others say Mr. Mueller was responsible for the continued imprisonment of those four men, they are simply wrong-" Why not say it straight: they are simply lying..
1
When the present investigation is completed Mueller needs to sue Hannity, Limbaugh and the others for libel and/or slander.
2
Of course Hannity and Limbaugh have no proof and have no problem repeating lies to their captive audience. Their simplistic assertions that just because Mueller was high-level FBI at the time, he must've been involved in the cover-up. But, since they lack any hard evidence, they just crucify blindly with loose innuendo and smear tactics they've honed so well over the years.
Thank you, Judge Gertner, for setting the record straight on the facts.
This type of spurious allegation needs to be addressed - facts matter.
they are good a raising these fake questions - but never provide any answers - they keep asking the same question over and over as if asking the question provide substance.
1
"If they do [have evidence to support their conspiracy theories], they should produce it. If they don’t, they should stop this campaign to discredit [______]."
Fill in the blank with any fact-based argument, or the name of any person or organization that has been challenged or defamed by the right-wing propaganda machine: climate change, the FBI, the entire federal government, James Comey, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, et al, ad nauseum. The smear is always the same. And the antidote to that smear is also the same: put up or shut up! Prove it, and until you do, don't expect the adults in the room to listen to, or care about, your every whine.
Thank you Nancy Gertner for this great piece of reporting and work as a Judge! The apple does not fall far from the tree! Trump is a liar and Hannity is lying - shameful even for a commentary reporter.
Look, Hannity, Limbaugh, and that twit Waters are just opinion people not news persons. But, their arguments are so far as valid as the trump Russia arguments. Meuller worked in the same building, had contact with the persons in question and knew people who had contacts with them. So by today's standards, guilty as charged. Stupid isn't it?
It does seem odd that the NYT gives a judge a lot of space to defend her decision though.
1
Judge Gertner -- can you please take your Harvard Law School colleague to task over his apparent willingness to accept these half-truths and then repeat them in the media?
2
Dershowitz is so unintentionally ironic. Just a glimpse of the allegations against him re: Epstein should be enough to discount his opinions forever.
1
Hannity is a highly-paid (by the fakeFOX team) narcissistic hack. He panders to the worst of humanity and spews lies and false propaganda like Tokyo Rose.
Those who believe him have no credibility or moral compass - certainly no critical reasoning ability. This is about as intellectual as "The Apprentice" or "Duck Dynasty".
4
"The record simply doesn’t support these assertions." or there is not evidence to support that claim are the way lawyers an judges think and talk. It may even be the correct way in this instance, but is seems to me to fall short. These statements by Hannity and the like fall in the range of "indifferent to the truth" and now knowing falsehood. Or more plainly, a lie. It is frustrating the that truth has so much difficulty finding purchase these days. None of us are perfect, but we are all no on notice. The truth does not reside with Sean Hannity or Twitter. We must look elsewhere.
1
The Fox and Hannity clown show is in the deep negatives on personal, corporate integrity. As for the journalism integrity...neither Hannity or his employers ever cared for such things, walked right past that line...integrity is for losers!
3
So, I hallucinated Mueller's Congressional testimony swearing to the existence of WMD's in Iraq in lockstep with the rest of the neocon cabal? Good to know.
1
VOTE, VOTE, VOTE.
8
It is obvious with Trump meeting privately with Mark Meadows and drooling Trump sycophant, Jim Jordan, that Trump is coordinating the firing of Rod Rosenstein, and that is obvious.....disgraceful conduct by the Republican Congress and Trump the Putin Stooge.
1
The President of the United States was promoting a Sean Hannity episode -- so, clearly the two coordinated -- in which he promoted damning lies about Mr. Mueller based on zero evidence. And Alan Dershowitz backs them up, even now.
Truly, facts no longer matter, not in the highest office in the land, not at Harvard Law School.
3
Is this the same Alan Dershowitz who was OJ Simpon's lawyer? The same Sean Hannity who is the "fixer's" third client? The same Rush Limbaugh who finally admitted to being a drug addict? These are the them who are attacking Mueller? Faux fans are believing these 3?
There must be lead in the water drunk in 'middle America.' It's the only conceivable explanation.
3
Hannity will never, ever, let the facts get in the way of his crummy "opinion" jourlnalism-lite
1
In the era of Trump, more than ever before, all one has to do is make up stories to denigrate the truth-sayers. With the internet and its immediate relay, the jackals will fall in line and parrot the lie. Truth? They can’t handle the truth. It’s far more convenient and effective to bear false witness. What’s one of the Ten Commandments worth, anyway? Certainly not as much as the Second Amendment.
4
Hannity and Limbaugh are not journalists or opinion writers, they are waging a propaganda war against trump enemies, pure and simple. The analogy would be to Hitler's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, and the like who ran Stalin's propaganda for the Soviet masses. Truth and fair play are irrelevant, and meaningless. Truth is what they say it is. The only issue to is how the facts can be twisted or manufactured up to convince the masses that threats to the One Leader must be eliminated.
13
Who needs facts when you have Fox, talk radio, and Dershowitz?
6
Trump & his supporters have taken a page from the likes of Hitler & others despots, tell a lie continuously & it becomes fact.Trumpites will do anything to besmirch Mueller, who is breathing down the neck of Trump.Trump & his supporters are coming to the end their existence, they know it & will dig up any lie to stall this investigation, but to no avail, they are finished.
7
bobby mueller
The man who personally delivered
American Uranium to a russian prjvate jet
On the uranium one deal
Hand delivered
Bobby the snake
Proof? Put up or shut up. Just because you said so makes it true?
6
Nothing short of Holocaust denial will remove Hannity from his perch as Fox News's chief propagandist for the Trump presidency, and even then they will have to carefully weigh the alternatives.
4
Liars lie.
6
And the man who wrote about “lying liars and the lies they tell“ is thrown from office by a bunch of reprehensible opportunists while the lying liar he wrote about towers over all.
Thank you Kirsten Gillibrand, Chuck Schumer, Tammy Duckworth, and all the rest of you for sacrificing your own and letting the stooges in charge outwit you again. You won’t pay for your stupidity and mendacity but the rest of us will.
These people who hide behind behind the title of "Journalists" and wrap themselves in the flag when it is convenient, are nothing more than paid shills for the fraud we have for a President.
More unfortunate are those who believe in them showing once again that both PT Barnum and Joseph Goebbels were correct.
5
If Mr. Mueller was not responsible or had knowledge of the cover up, who was? And why were they not prosecuted?
1
The lying FAUX 'News' channel is as untruthful as the lying morally unfit to be president crud in the White House is. Why anyone but idiots and fools listen or watch Fox channel is beyond me.
8
Hannity, Infowars, Rush and the others, including Trump, are con artists who play, very successful, the tin foil hat brigade with their incessant “deep state” shrill cries.
Evidence and facts are not need or welcomed in their alternate world.
Yet, as these con artists, which also includes the noise makers from the offal, oops, Oval Office and press room, spew their fake news they have the audacity to call this publication and others fake news.
4
One vote has virtually no chance of changing the outcome of an election where thousands or millions vote. Hence, expecting everyone to incur the costs of getting good information is irrational.
Voting is a different decision-making than shopping at Amazon where it is rational to use the reviews and to check their validity using websites such as Fakespot.
While Judge Gertner has shown that Mueller had no involvement in the case, nonetheless, I believe he deserves some prison time.
Some people view the legal system as legitimate and putting innocents in jail or prison as an aberration; hence, they believe that those who directly caused the miscarriage of justice should face penalties, not those with no involvement in the case.
I take a different approach. I believe that those at the top of any organization have a responsibility to make sure it is not violating innocent people, whether that organization is the Catholic Church or GM or a government.
Analogous to holding people who work with dynamite responsible not to harm people, the same should be the case with corporations, which are far more dangerous.
Incarcerating innocent people is a known risk, and the top government officials in all branches must be held accountable and receive the penalties they deserve.
4
Shame Professor Dershowitz, shame on you. You lay down with Trump, Hannity, Jones and that ilk you may feel well rewarded in your pocket but truthfully how does it feel in your soul?
6
Dershowitz is a liar. Why on earth do intelligent people respect him?
7
Gggrrrr.....
1
When it comes to "dirt," we know already the response is "I love it.!" This is what we've been witnessing with the attacks led by Sean Hannity and all "the President's men" (and in the case of Sarah Sanders, women) including tweet-taunting Trump himself with his "slime ball" attacks. I have not seen such an attack on democracy since the real communist (aka Soviet Russia) "witch hunt" by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Now the Joseph Welch question, "At long last have you left no sense of decency?" would be answered with an expletive tweet. There is no longer any decency nor respect for basic human dignity and democratic principles--just cruelty, mean-spirited authoritarianism.
3
....And you call Alan Dershowitz your "friend"?
5
Hannity and Trump are exhibiting textbook examples of fear-based behavior. They know there is damning information about them contained in the Cohen files and they have lost control of the situation. As hard as it is to listen to their collective, high-warble hate speech filled with lies, ignore it...it's based on fear, desperation and all they've got left. Justice will prevail.
6
Criminals defending criminals. Trumps White House, Fox News, Cohen, NRA, Putin, Manafort, etc, etc.
5
On a separate matter, I recall angrily watching Hannity replaying a video clip of former Secretary Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Presidential campaign, bobbing her head with a smile, in surprised response to a greeter. Hannity kept pressing that Clinton could have had a "seizure" (his word) and thus raised her neurological competency.
Even though head bobbing in pleasant response is a normal behavior. And no, this was no seizure. I know: I am a neurologist.
Dr Ben Carson, in running for being the Republican candidate, at that time was exhorted by Hannity on the show to chip in that she was having a seizure, but he deflected, but without flatly rejected that Clinton could have had a seizure on TV. You think a neurosurgeon would know the difference.
This is still another exhibit of Hannity's Fake News Factory, the facts be damned.
3
This reminds me of the scene in “Amadeus” when Emperor Joseph II tells Mozart that his latest masterpiece “has altogether too many notes in it. You should take some out.” Mozart replies “Which ones?” An historically accurate, truthful piece of writing such as this is great, but the sad fact is, most Americans do not read in depth. Many of them look to Fox (Fake)News and commentators like Hannity to distill life into a few items that fit with their world view. Facts need not get in the way. Mobster-injustice-FBI-Mueller-cover up. That’s enough for them. NYT should have an outlet maybe called NYT Lite that can slug it out with the liars in the media scrum. Or just tweet things. It’s easier, cheaper and you can fire your writers and editors. They’re so 20th Century; excellent people trying their best to do a good job. Thanks anyway for an excellent article.
3
Produce evidence?? Shoot!
3
If ever there was a time to step up and call out Fox Noise for what it is, the propaganda arm of the republiCON party, the time is now. When you have the trifecta of sleaze going after an American for doing his job you lose all semblance of “news organization” and merely become another liar in the race to the bottom of ethical standards by this republiCON administration. The absolutely deplorable republiCON Congress has not just lowered the bar, they buried it.
It is our civic responsibility to start a campaign against not only Fox Noise but the whole lot of the sleazy republiCON party that would allow a common thug and mafia boss the keys to our treasury and everything that goes with it.
Americans can no longer set by and allow the fascist republiCON party the ability to lie out of every crime committed by the Comrade Trump and his Russian cohorts.
Fox Noise is merely the national conduit for lies disseminated by lying talking heads whose expertise on most matters is about what a second grader would dream up. People sell their souls to be able to lie with impunity on Fox Noise hoping the benefactors of hate like the Mercer’s or Koch’s will slip a million dollars for them to continuing lying.
Don’t even vote for a republiCON for dog catcher, none of them deserve your vote for any office.
8
And Dershowitz who also is spreading these vicious lies about Mr. Mueller is still “ a friend” of yours? Why?
3
Presumably because their friendship extends back decades to when he was a respected law professor.
Hannity & others are desparate to slander Mr. Mueller, the entire FBI & the investigation only because they are protecting POTUS, his agregious lies & corrupt Administration!! Their consciences are dulled! That's the only way they can continue to disparage Mr. Mueller day after day! What a pathetic bunch they are!!!
2
I am inclined to admire Robert Mueller........he seems to embody all the "good" we learned in our history books about such individuals as Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, IKE and many other Presidents who upheld the dignity and the position and the goals of a federal employee, no matter what rank or what title they held. A rare person in today's political world.........
7
It's been clear for some time that people that listen to Hannity, Limbaugh and the rest and believe their lies lack critical thinking skills. Hannity, Limbaugh and the rest are counting on it.
6
Isn't Dershowitz a professor at at Harvard?Smearing Mueller and lying sound like offenses that might warrant dismissal.
6
Read it again. She said “retired”.
L. Tallchief,
Dershowitz is a professor emeritus at Harvard and still has an official Harvard email. Although retired, he hasn't cut all ties to the university.
https://www.directory.harvard.edu/phonebook/submitSearch.do
" My friend Alan Dershowitz" ??? This does not reflect well on the author. A creepy man if there ever was one.
6
The far right pundit cabal of Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc., are the people who laid the groundwork for the disaster that is President Trump. History will not be kind to them. They have successfully convinced millions of dim bulb Americans to vote against their own interests. Hopefully, the Hannity involvement with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen will lead to a scandal and his downfall. That would be a proper ending to his deeply flawed career.
Robert Mueller is a war hero and long serving public servant whose integrity is light years ahead of all these Rethuglican pundits. He is also a Republican.
8
Hannity and limbaugh should be tried for sedition and if convicted spend the rest of their days in Federal prison.
They have been doing damage to our democracy, our Nation, and our Constitution for as long as they have been twaddling on about democrats and liberals, and real conservatives for that matter.
If their nonsense was being broadcast from Cuba we would have found a way to jam their lies and hate.
t rump could take a cue from Bob Menendez who was accused of a crime, plead his innocence, stood trial and was found innocent. He allowed the course of justice to find its way.
If t rump is as innocent and he says he is (a very unlikely event) he will be found innocent (if he can find a competent lawyer to defend him that is) if he is indeed innocent.
I wonder if Hannity and limbaugh think they will get a seat at the emperor's table if t rump's dreams of becoming dictator for life come to fruition. I am hoping they get a seat at his dining table at Leavenworth.
4
Sean Hannity has no scruples whatsoever. He's just an opportunistic right-wing liar. I hope Nancy Gertner will do more than just wave her finger at this jerk. How about some kind of perjury charges, as in "Put up or shut up, Mr Hannity! "
5
But we live in the world of Republican reality where all
somebody (or "a lot of people") needs to do is make an assertion to qualify it as truth. Note the birther episode in particular, or Benghazi. The echo chamber amplifies and substantiates the rumor, and like a bone caught crosswise in your throat, it stays put. All by design. The Republican design. Why would they treat Mueller any differently, Purple Heart be damned. And there is no real Democratic equivalence here, if you say so you're just making sh.. up...again.
4
Doubt you’ll be interviewed by Hannity
1
No amount of setting the record straight will work for Hannity's followers. Perhaps it's time for some good old fashioned (fact-based) investigative work to be done on Hannity to finally show him for the charlatan he is. There's substantially more to his suspicious connection to Michael Cohen than has come out..... Please NY Times do some uncovering of your own.
5
The FBI Boston office was corrupt as anything during the time when Whitey lead the Winter Hill Gang. Today's leadership at the FBI is just as corrupt. The truth will come to light and Mueller will be shown to be corrupt and immoral
Where is your proof of your assertion that today's FBI is corrupt?
4
@Jimd: And your assertions are true because ...? What is your credible source of information?
3
We live in a highly polarized nation where nearly 80% of Republicans think Trump is doing a good job, where 75% of White Evangelicals willingly accept the immoral anti-Christ Trump as their political leader. This polarization is implemented and exaggerated by the Fox News/Breitbart right wing propaganda machines. The extreme right learned from the Nazis how to vilify and stigmatize minorities, to build on fears and hatred of the lower educated classes. As has been said again and again, these hate machines are powered by huge amounts of corporate cash.
The only faint glimmer is that despite the hate-based Republican election victory, Trump was placed in the Oval Office by a mere 29% of the potential electorate. If the majority of Americans can be motivated overcome their apathy, go to the polls, vote for their own best interests and throw the GOP traitors and liars out of Washington we may be able to save our democracy.
5
When are we going to stop treating anything said by Hannity as news or fact. He says he is not a newsman and that he is Trump supporter. His behavior in the Cohen matter shows that he is, at best a propagandist, and worst as reliable as the correspondents for Pravda were. Until proven otherwise, it is safe to assume that anything he is associated with is based and fabrication, mis-direction or just plain old dishonesty.
6
In 2003, the Times published a letter to Mueller written by an FBI agent under his command, who among other things, noted he was SERIOUSLY lying about al-Qaeda:
**The FBI is apparently the source for the public statement that there are 5,000 al-Qaeda terrorists already in the U.S. I would ask you to inquire as to whether this figure is based on any hard data. If it is, rather, an estimate based largely on speculation, this can only feed the suspicion, inside the organization and out, that it is largely the product of a desire to gain favor with the administration, to gain support for FBI initiatives and possibly even to gain support for the administration's initiatives.**
He deserves to be smeared. He trafficked in Lies of Mass Destruction and why he isn't in jail is testament to the corruption he is both center and master of.
Read the letter: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/politics/full-text-of-fbi-agents-lett...
@Happy Selznick: Trying to claim that Mueller is corrupt based on an unsubstantiated letter written in 2003 by a supposed FBI agent about an entirely different topic is pretty dang weak. Please. Get some more evidence before making unfounded claims.
2
Isn't it possible to sue for slander if the allegations are untrue?
2
The Hannitys and others in the faux news world know they are making stuff up. Their target audience doesn't. Thus, the liars assume their audience is ignorant. Will this stupid bloc of people ever wake up and get angry that they are being duped? Not likely...
4
It's hardly the first time that Mr. Hannity has allowed the facts or lack therof to spoil a pariticualr narrative.
3
Gee. I hope you don't have a partner who is undercover, because telling the truth against right-wing lies will get you targeted these days.
The Repuglicans and their propaganda mouthpiece, Fox, are unethical and out of control.
Good luck to you, sir. Your service to the nation is appreciated.
3
Alan Dershowitz should have to register as a foreign agent for Israel, for whatever he has to do to curry favor with Trump for Israel he'll do, and that includes smearing Mr. Mueller.
3
Dershowitz has gone totally off the rails in his willy-nilly support of various causes.
5
American insecurity, gullibility and just plain stupidity make this Hannity & Co. possible.
The traditional American competency of blaming the other guy (African-American, Hispanic or Moslem) for the failures in my life has made lying and manufacturing stories to suit your thesis has been a classic and it eventually brought us to electing a sexual predator to the White House...Who knew?
3
Yeah, it's heartwarming to hear from Rush Limbaugh, self-admitted drug addicted and fearless draft dodger.
4
Remember Trump's 5 deferments.
1
I wonder how Sean Hannity sleeps at night.
2
Right wing media just making stuff up! Who woulda thunk it?
2
Who needs Russia TV when you have FOX? When will they start finding Russian money flowing to the NRA...
2
Biased, predictable and ignorant. Congratulations. If the FBI tries similar situated individuals the same, please explain why the tactics used against the current president were not used against Hillary Clinton?
How many people were granted immunity during the Clinton investigation? Who had actual evidence physically destroyed? What happened to Clinton's attorney who was also a witness compared to Cohen? Was Clinton's interview recorded? Was she brought before a Grand Jury?
As an attorney, who has both been a prosecutor and a defense attorney I must say that you are either ignorant or so biased to have failed to miss these basic questions.
Dershowitz is an embarrassment to the legal profession!!!
5
Defending a career FBI agent is like defending a chicken hawk who ate all your chickens.
1
All of the elegant and persuasive arguments for honesty in government and yet the commentators are surely Hillary Clinton supporters one of the worst liars and most corrupt people to ever run for the presidency
@Steve: This is an excellent example of how not to comment effectively. Just jumping into the comments section to smear Hilary Clinton with unsubstantiated accusations and to make broad, generalized claims about the commenters here is not an effective or thoughtful way to make a point.
However, you probably did manage to alienate a large number of readers. The people who comment here (but don't like Clinton) won't take to your comment kindly, nor will the people who do like Clinton, nor will those who don't have strong feelings about Clinton one way or another, but who also know that the world is full of good people who occasionally make errors of judgment. Many people will simply skip your comment because it is lacking in substance or insight. Good luck in getting people to listen to you in the future!
4
On-going defamation of character based on outright lies and willful distortions from the premier Fake Fox News outlet and Friends. A group of amoral, treasonous, deplorables!
2
Like Alex Jones and Sandy Hook, Hannity and others should be sued for premeditated lying...
8
I agree with Judge Gertner. But I believe that the FBI's worst scandal is J. Edgar Hoover's cross-dressing and rampant racism. Why don't the Trump supporters ever mention that?
1
As they say, never let the facts get in the way of a juicy story.
This former judge's account of the actual facts is further evidence that FOX News is at the root of the country's problems. Like the Russian trolls, Hannity and company figured out that disinformation sells to the right wing. FOXNews amoral pursuit of profit at the expense of telling the truth or relying on facts is a thorny issue created by a free market approach to the news business. Given the perils of censorship, the wisdom of the free market approach relies on an educated citizenry, one capable of discerning when people are lying. The only antidote is education in critical thinking. And unfortunately we have one party in this country that consistently seeks to cut education funding.
4
Mueller is in Clinton Inc. right up to his brown eyes..
1
Once again the nut bars of the Alt -Right (Hannity and Limbaugh) will never let a little thing like the Truth get in the way of a great conspiracy scandal with zero credibility. The ability to lie about ANYTHING to achieve their pathetic agenda is truly amazing. Or as the old saying goes, "Don`t. confuse the fools with the facts when their tiny brains are already made up! Pathetic.
2
So what is the Fox response to this? Think about it. Some supposed judge appears out of nowhere and denies this Mueller coverup. The judge is part of the "Deep State" and now works for Haaa-vaaad. How can you get more left wing Trump hating than that? This denial proves the point of Mueller corruption in the false imprisonment for decades of these innocent men. They admit the FBI covered up the informants. Caso cerrado!
P.S. That last thing, the FBI withholding of information, is actually troublesome.
The tagline reads "One of the FBI's worst scandals."
Sad commentary when one has to refer to anything as "one" of your worst scandals. Very sad.
Too bad FOX 'news' viewers will never have knowledge of this. They blindly stay in their bubble and believe the lies.
FOX News has, somehow, got to be stopped. The same for Limbaugh and other spewer of lies. How will our country ever come to terms with our divisions if we cannot agree on the facts? Where is the FCC? "Fair and balanced". Right.
3
Unfortunately, the trumpers don't read the NYT. What is the chance of getting this article on Fox news?
2
Shame on Dershowitz. A Williamsburg, Brooklyn boy who made good! And coming from an Orthodox Jewish family which means he should be righteous in every way. Now to be in league with the alternative reality crew, spewing out conspiracy theories. Former Harvard professor, meaning he has been exposed to some of the best minds and yet it appears his moral, ethical compass has been compromised. How do these things happen? So Saaad! And so baaad! Alan think back to your roots—-wake up and examine your soul. It is never too late to change course. But do so quickly, you are being judged by the company you keep. Tempus Fugit—-the ship is sinking!
1
2013, then-FBI Director Mueller stonewalling under oath to Congress about Obama's IRS targeting scandal:
.
JORDAN:Can you tell me how many agents you’ve assigned to the case?
MUELLER: I may be able to do that, but I’d have to get back to you.
JORDAN: Can you tell me who the lead investigator is?
MUELLER: Off the top of my head, no.
JORDAN:
This is the most important issue in front of the coun try the last six
weeks, you don’t know who’s heading up the case? Who the lead
investigator is?
MUELLER: At this junction, no, I do not know...
2
Dershowitz either appears to have lost his mind, or is so cynical that he doesn't care. What a disappointment. He reminds me of a modern day Albert Speer. A person who should know better, but is so focused on promoting himself that he doesn't care at all. How repulsive.
5
Ah yes, evidence. The one thing that doesn't get in the way of a good 'ole Hannity/FOX yarn.
3
Hannity Earns $29 Million dollars per year to spout his lies, Limbaigh signed a contract for $400 million over 8 years to spout his lies. They are simply the worst kind of prostitutes who are willing to hurt countless people in exchange for their large paychecks. Just look at those millions who believe their tripe.
Now lets compare them to the poor streetwalker, hustling to feed her child or perhaps a drug habit. Who is more despicable?
3
The lefts attempts at canonizing this crook are sickening. If he was as great as the left says he would have long ago said this is all politics and walked away. He's a highly partisan puppet of the left...and will forever be seen as a corrupt individual in the eyes of most Americans. He joins the other idiot, Ken Starr. Both crooks!
1
And a life long Republican to boot...OOPS!
A reprehensible attack on a highly honorable man.
Mueller is a former Marine whose career has never been tainted by any scandal. He has a crack team of investigators, no leaks. Dershowitz is trying to get his name in the papers for no reason, other than his need for attention. Why does the Times give Hannity and Dershowitz a podium? They have that on Fox News; we can choose not to watch or listen to them, which is what I choose. Now they have gained a perch on the Times? Why? This is tabloid fodder.
1
Conversations that include conspiring to invent, manufacture, or otherwise concoct stories used to mislead, obstruct, or misinform an ongoing investigation are not protected by the attorney-client privilege under the "crime-fraud exception."
I wonder if any of Cohen's seized records cover conservations he had with Sean Hannity, say about Mueller . . .
Maurice F. Baggiano, author of The Federal Rules of Evidence, Deconstructed: A Benchbook for Lawyers, and Member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court
2
Stay woke and vote
Show your outrage at the ballot box
Show up and be counted in every election, every time.
Lack of participation got us the Trump presidency and complicit congress. Show them that times up!
6
La,la,la,la,la . . . .
FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS!
I can't heeaarrrr you!!!!
Sadly, the response to any reasoned, rational dialog in Trumpland.
What's the answer? I fear for the future of our nation.
Thank you so much for clarifying. What the heck is going on with Dershowitz?? Why has he joined with Lyin’ Hannity??
Our only hope is Mueller and people working toward the truth! Thank you again.
- Dershowitz has changed markedly (from who he used
to be) and he seems to have gone over to the dark
side. The pleasant TV demeanor that he used to have
has now become a permanent scowl.
- Hannity has always been on the dark side (fascist?)
- Fox TV is now State TV (and if the GOP has its way,
will soon be rid of all on-air competition)
Perhaps you do not realize that the Watergate investigation took 2 years; the Ken Star investigation over 4 years.
2
I can understand why others might participate in what amounts to a crime all its own against innocent people, and I can understand why two-bit slanderers play their role in distorting the facts in the case, but I simply can't comprehend why Alan Dershowitz plays his dishonorable role in discrediting Mr. Mueller. Surely he better than all others knows that the evidence of absence exists usually in some region of mental things not obvious to others. Moreover, his own shadowy bob-and-weave game in supporting Mr. Trump makes no sense to me unless he himself has some ulterior motive beyond his usual effort to portray himself as the supreme arbiter of truth, fact and fairness. Somethings' rotten in Denmark here.
Mueller is a Democrat soldier- nothing more and the NYTs and it's lemming followers would do well to wake up to the fact that he has taken this assignment too far. His only chance at success is to bow out or absolve Trump.
2
He's a registered Republican and, unlike Sergeant Bone Spurs, has always served our country honorably.
2
Sean Hannity should not be mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Robert Mueller. Sean Hannity is nothing more than a "c" grade game show host and his game is fool the ignorant, a snake oil salesman wannabe who prays on blatant stupidity. Robert Mueller is a dedicated public servant who has conducted himself with a level of professionalism that Sean Hannity can't even comprehend. Eventually there will be a conclusion to this investigation and regardless of the outcome, good or bad for Trump, Sean Hannity is going to look like the idiot he is,
2
now that mr. hannity has been outed as one of michael cohen's clients, there is nothing he will not stoop to to divert attention away from himself. as long as fox news continues to support him and the other liars they will continue to spread their filth.
2
Contact Hannity’s advertisers and say “No More.”
2
Fox/Limbaugh are not talking to the American public. They are talking to the immovable 30% of Americans who will stick by this president no matter what, and who view every negative thing about him as a conspiracy from the same people who are busy pumping chemtrails into the atmosphere.
1
Here are the largest advertisers on Fox News, according to Adweek. I've already sent emails to Geico and Liberty Mutual and I am working my way down the list. Get writing people. Tell them that you will not do business with them as long as they continue to support this network and that their brand has been deeply tainted by their affiliation and support of Fox News' depravity. We've already taken down O'Reilly and Roger Ailes. It can be done.
Top 10 Brands on Fox News (Feb. 2018)
(Source: Adweek)
Nutrisystem $1.90M
Otezla $1.04M
Jenny Craig $806K
Sleep Number $655K
Indeed $587K
South Beach Diet $574K
Smile Direct Club $563K
Liberty Mutual $488K
GEICO $469K
Inogen $450K
7
Don’t forget about AT&T! They even stood by Laura Ingraham when her other advertisers were dropping her after she criticized David Hogg, the Parkland student.
2
I look forward to the day when the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh, et al are relegated to their proper place in our political history.
That place would be characterized as the world of fact-less bluster, unprovoked attacks, the need to sensationalize even the most insignificant matter, and a dedicated assault on reasonable thought and rational discourse.
"He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. "
— Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
1
Hannity the conpiracy theorist.
Oh what a tangled web we weave
when fitst we practici to deceive.
Hannity subverts the first amendment by a knowingly and willfully spreads propaganda and lies ,sole intent of which is to tear apart our democratic institution. (DOJ, Courts, FBI, State Dept., Electoral Process)
He does this for personal gain.
He should be indicted.
For treason,
1
Simply a shame that this important piece will only be read by NYTimes readers
What Katy wrote:
Katy Maryland, April 18
I am getting so sick of this!!!! There are NO CONSEQUENCES for Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, Ingraham, Carlson, Jones, Trump, et al. -- the lying liars who not only make a living from their lies, but who are influencing our elections, our policies, our standing in the world, and the decline of government in this country with them. How did it come to this, and WHEN are these dishonest, ignorant so-and-so's going to be held to account for their (at best) sleazy, possibly (at worst) illegal conduct??? We have GOT TO BETTER!!!!
I'd like to see the Times bring back a robust section on the news media with a focus on calling out fake news generated by the people Katy lists.
Thanks to Judge Gertner for clearing up the Whitey Bolger issue. It stank no matter which prosecutor was responsible, but at least it wasn't Mueller.
I would love for some enterprising reporter to ask this lady what about Judge Kimba Woods' laughable mistake in allowing Sean Hannity's name to be mentioned - at the suggeestion/reguest of a prominent NY Times lawyer and attack bot.
I wish we could get back to the separation of news and opinion that existed in the mid-20th century. I was a journalist in the 80s, and even then would not have dreamed of mixing editorial opinion with straight news. Even the NY Times has confused matters with their "news analyses." I think we need regulations, as propaganda is a dangerous tool. Fox is 100 percent conservative propaganda and should have its broadcast license revoked. Other media outlets should make clear distinctions between objective news, editorials, op-ends, columns, and features. Otherwise, we're in trouble. Hitler's main tool was propaganda. Read William L. Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
2
Hannity is simply working up his supporters because he knows he's going to need them once investigators dig up some dirt on him from the seized Cohen files. Have at it Hannity, your days are numbered.
1
And Trump's the guy who wanted to punish those black youths on a rape charge, taking out a full page ad in the NYT. He did it even after DNA evidence exonerated them. As a former CIA chief has said, Trump takes brazen to a whole new level; I'll add hypocrisy!
1
Thank you, your honor, for the first person reply and the facts in this case. The overwhelming cascade of verbal garbage from the right-wing makes actual truth hard to find these days. A harsh American reality is that propaganda is of the edge of winning the disinformation war. When I was in elementary school, we had a unit on propaganda and how to recognize it. The lesson has never been lost on me. Everything about Hannity, Limbaugh, the rest of Fox so-called News, Sinclair, Breitbart and too many others (the noxious list goes on and on, and keeps seeping into the mainstream) just reeks of propaganda. The shame of this is the number of Americans who believe this baseless garbage. I don't know how we reverse this, but somehow it must happen before we truly descend into the Fourth Reich. A final comment: to paraphrase Desi Arnaz, Alan Dershowitz has some 'splainin' to do about how his credibility wound up splattered across the Fox so-called Newsroom floor.
Hannity works for a fascist propaganda machine that masquerades under the name Fox News. If Fox was a real news organization Hannity would have been fired for his suspicious connection to Cohen and the complaints of sexual harassment against him.
3
Looks like Dershowitz wants to be the next Supreme Court justice that Trump appoints--now that Michael Cohen probably won't get the position, and even Scott Pruitt's judicial stock has gone down.
Dershowitz' line that the "absence of evidence is not conclusive evidence of absence," can open up lots of ridiculous claims -- how about a claim that Dershowitz and Hannity run a child porn website? Surely, "absence of evidence is not conclusive evidence of absence." So where does this leave us?
Sounds like a clear case of malicious slander to me - maybe FauxNews' Waterloo?
1
Horrifying nihilism . . . This is what the America of DT faces.
I would be ashamed to call the "new" Alan Dershowitz my friend.
2
So what else is new about these people: Should call them "The Gang that Can't shoot Straight".
When did a good Christian ever need evidence for anything?
1
Fox News is a lying machine. Providing them with the truth is just grease for the cogs--they will bend and twist it to suit themselves.
Who you going to believe? There is a big difference between the guy who has made mistakes and has the ability to admit it, or the histrionic narcissist who defiles himself and our culture and that abominable filth they have managed to pass off as “news.” Yank those hate monger ingrate’s soapboxes out from under them.
Thank you, Judge Gertner, for standing up for the truth. You'll no doubt become a target of Hannity's slander soon because of this, and we'll support you when it happens.
1
Seam Hannity is now just like Trump. A 3rd rate con man celebrity circus performer
freaking out because he can be implicated in treason. Trump Country, USA is burning.
2
You must have Mueller-amnesia.
Mueller as FBI Director and James Comey as Deputy Attorney General, both presided over post-9/11 cover-ups and secret abuses of the Constitution, including torture, enabled Bush-Cheney fabrications to launch wrongful wars, and exhibited plain vanilla incompetence.
Mueller is a loyal servant of the national security state, being the ex head of the major domestic police state agency, supporting CIA torture and NSA mass surveillance, and being dripping wet with corruption going all the way back to his days in Boston.
1
Since when did Fox News, or Rush Limbaugh, need evidence? Or, for that matter, Donald Trump?
3
I feel like we’re due for another indictment soon. I’m thinking tomorrow or mid next week.
1
As their Dear Leader Trump has demonstrated, the Hannity mindset "don't need no stinkin' evidence" to keep their supporters distracted and deluded.
But, as with the Dick&Bush debacle, they can't evade the reality of their results. Same for the GOP: as the lights come on, the cockroaches are scattering.
2
We also have prior knowledge from Mr Mueller's family that he vehemently refused potty training and wore a diaper until age 4 1/2. This alone is good enough reason for Trump followers to have Mueller's investigation questioned and eventually, quashed.
Hannity lost all credibility when he lost Colmes. Colmes almost certainly would be pointing out two very significant details:
1) If there is enough evidence to think that Donald Trump may be guilty of collusion or obstruction, or abetting collusion or obstruction, with Russia or any other country, with the intent of influencing or effecting the outcome of our Presidential election, it will be investigated and prosecuted no matter WHO is in charge of the investigation, if we intend to continue to be a free and fair democracy; and
2) Attorney-client privilege is nullified if the attorney is believed to be complicit in the crimes committed by the suspect (Donald), or in helping to conceal the suspected crimes. A federal judge was apparently presented with more than enough evidence to be convinced that Mr. Cohen was complicit and helped to conceal the crimes. If this was done incorrectly, it would be the failing of the federal judge who decided to issue the warrant , not Mr. Mueller.
It seems that Trump supporters believe that if Trump fights their fights for them, it doesn't matter what he does otherwise, even if it is morally wrong or even criminal. But that is more a sentiment found in Fascism, not Democracy.
3
Instead of firing Mueller, 45 and his fellow liars will work at ruining Mueller's credibility. This behavior is unconscionable, another threat to truth and the Rule of Law in our nation. Points to evidence of,very guilty people, afraid of the truth.
1
This is all well and good. But a smear campaign isn't based on facts. Trump's loyal base, and his enablers in congress, had all the 'facts' they needed long ago. This will probably end badly for both Rosenstein and Mueller, but the truth will prevail. The only way to stop this Republican Jihad is to vote them out in November. And to keep voting them out forever.
5
The blind hatred for Trump is causing people who should know better to defend prosecutors. Prosecutors have WAY too much power in this country. Nobody should defend them, ever -- Mueller's investigation notwithstanding. When you go after people's families to force confessions and guilty-pleas, that's just plain wrong, ever single time.
1
@David
It's not 'blind hatred' for trump, even though that sentiment was very clear FROM donald towards Hillary.
Trump is vilified because he is in over his head.
He does not know what he's doing, he's trashing the office and the nation as he tweet-lurches from topic to topic.
2
The hatred for trump isn't blind! His lies says it all.
2
Desperate people take desperate measures, in this case, trying to smear Mr. Mueller for something he was not involved in. Thank you for clarifying the matter.
Hannity and his gang are not "simply wrong." They are simply lying.
Hannity likes to say that he is not a journalist, so that he can't be held to standards of journalistic integrity. He claims to be an entertainer, so he can use sources like, "people are telling me," and "I've been told," just like Trump does. And they both use each other for sources, in a circular source cloud, far from grounding in any fact.
Meanwhile the Republicans have spent decades weakening protections for suspects and defendants with legislation and judicial nominations. They deride the Bill of Rights as "technicalities," and if a poor low IQ defendant is being railroaded to the electric chair they all pull on an imaginary train horn, singing "woo woo."
But suddenly, they voted for a president who was too arrogant to realize that someone with a background in fraud, whose personal lawyer calls himself a "fixer," will be investigated, so they are all about protecting the rights of suspects and defendants now?
What a joke. If those four defendants had been shot by the police, unarmed, way back when, Hannity would have said they were criminals and deserved what they got.
These people are not interested in justice, or democracy, or the constitution. They are interested in large piles of money and the raw political power that comes with it.
If you get your news from Fox, you need to realize that Fox is not about truth, but helping crony capitalists get away with Bond Villain size crimes.
3
Muller is the “fox guarding the hen house”.
This cries out for a Special Prosecutor, one from outside the beltway, to dig into this apparent corruption. Along the way, the special prosecutor should investigate Mueller’s involvement with:
1. Uranium One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_One
2. Ted Stevens Prosecution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Stevens
We would not be having this ridiculous kerfuffle if the 2016 election had been decided by a simple one person one vote system as in any other democracy in the world. Hillary won the popular vote and should be President Clinton. We need to amend the Constitution and disolve the silly electoral college once and for all.
1
Robert Mueller has been the best of the best in every stage of his life.
Ms Gertner has rendered value service in this excellent fact based account.
4
Well, that couldn't be clearer!
The public needs a civics lesson on the importance of not using our judicial system to fight political battles. Judge Gertner seems like just the instructor for such a course!
Who would you rather your daughter date: Robert Mueller or Sean Hannity?
1
Remember, America.....that is what Republicans do best: smear others, such as calling them slimeballs - untruthful slimeballs at that, even though those on the receiving end are usually Republicans themselves. On the other hand, some of them like George W, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld probably deserved those titles. Ah, Well, America, there will always be new names and faces when these are gone........
2
Hannity, Limbaugh, Dershowitz, and whomever else is making such accusations for the purpose of smearing the special prosecutor should be sued for libel. Now.
6
Third graders like hanity, Limburger, Coulter Ingram and all of the white wing demagogues are the real ones holding this country hostage. The spew their divisive hate speech. The tell you with an incredulous strait face that the earth is really flat after all and liberals are to blame. They would blame their own mothers if the could get better ratings. The audience that listens is the scary part. There are a lot of impressionable unintelligent humans in this country. Who still think Reagan was god like. Murdoch should be given the tail gunner Joe McCarthy award. That should be an award given each year in his name for the most disingenuous and divisive propaganda. Trump is Murdoch’s puppet.
You mean, Sean Hannity has ANY credibility left?? Seriously??
5
Hannity has no “facts” but just his misleading truths and out right lies. Now with his recent conflict of interest regarding Cohen is amazing he even has an audience. Wake up America, this man is a fraud.
3
The disgusting right wing pundits are attacking Meuller
because when he produces the goods on Trump he gives the Trump supporters in Congress at least a feeble excuse denying the evidence as tainted by a corrupt and biased man. Otherwise they would have to ignore it without reason which may yet be a difficult thing to do.
There is a purpose to what they are doing.
3
Even if you get the conspiracy theorists to read this article they wouldn't believe it. How do you reach those who feed on lies and inaccuracies? THAT'S the million dollar question!
1
Oh this is rich. Lets make sure that Fox News keeps on this story about wrongfully imprisoned Americans. Fox News needs to stay on this story!
1
A minor detail - which the Judge should have disclosed - consists of the fact that she was a friend of Hillary Clinton at university and obtained her appointment to the bench from then-President Clinton. Minor detail.
Another minor detail - Mr. Mueller formed his investigative team, recruiting mainly partisan Democratic operatives. A minor detail omitted.
Another minor detail relates to the close relationship between Mr. Mueller and Mr. Comey. A minor detail omitted.
It should be possible - perhaps it is not - for the NY Times to find someone, somewhere who can write about this topic with some neutral objectivity. Please. Your readers deserve the full picture - not a part of it.
2
And how many innocent people did Joe Hynes keep in jail, including people charged with misdemeanors while railing at me that I shouldn't be a fair judge because I wouldn't set the bails or order the jail time his untrained ada's asked for?
Conversations that include conspiring to invent, manufacture, or otherwise concoct stories used to mislead, obstruct, or misinform an ongoing investigation are not protected by the attorney-client privilege under the "crime-fraud exception."
I wonder if any of Cohen's seized records cover conservations he had with Hannity, say about Mueller . . .
Maurice F. Baggiano, author of The Federal Rules of Evidence, Deconstructed: A Benchbook for Lawyers, and Member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court
1
"But there is no evidence to back up their charges."
Hannity, Limdaugh and co. have long since past the stage of needing evidence to back up their assertions and their audiences like it this way.
Theirs is a horribly distorted derivation of the line in the John Ford film, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "when the truth becomes legend, print the legend."
1
Isn't it remarkable that the GOP and their media organs and proponents have flip-flopped on their admiration of all things law-and-order, to the point where wild, unsubstantiated conjecture is driving the new narrative?
Smells like they just realized that the heat is on, bigly, and they must cocoon their goon in the WH by all means necessary.
2
These people lie as often as our president does. Nothing new.
1
Sean Hannity and the rest of Fox News should be shut down immediately. They are a nasty bunch of rumor mongers who border on treasonous behavior. I am so repulsed by him/them but even more dosgusted that they have such a large viewing audience. Talk about ugly Americans. Conspiracy theorists all, they spread lies faster than trump can spew them. Freedom of Speech and Free Press do not cover this. Where are the heroes? Certainly not at Fox.....
3
Fox News, after dropping “fair and balanced” has turned itself into the TV version of the National Enquirer as the #FeralThird has snuck trump* into the White House.
A broken dish can be stuck together, but it can never be un-broken again. We are now a broken country.
1
Wish we could take every one of the 30 conservative smear artists out behind a wooded and smack the living tar out of them. Individually and by lie-size.
Will there ever be a time that Murdoch et al finds a conscience and removes anyone spouting propaganda,fake news etc.Come on Lachlan I know you have a soul..do something.Fox news is a stain on our democracy.
3
Muller is the “fox guarding the hen house”.
This cries out for a Special Prosecutor, one from outside the beltway, to dig into this apparent corruption. Along the way, the special prosecutor should investigate Mueller’s involvement with:
1. Uranium One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_One
2. Ted Stevens Prosecution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Stevens
who cares about evidence. Apparently Mueller and the FBI don't care if there is evidence re Trump-Russia collusion. They just keep chugging along. NO evidence on collusion. No problem. Let's intimidate a couple of guys for lying to the FBI. NO evidence. Heck let's dig into old financial transactions of anyone who worked for Trump in 2016 and see if we can find anything. Nothing related to the campaign? No problem. Let's get em for money laundering a decade or so ago.
And if all that fails. Heck let's raid his private attorney's office and see if we can find anything related to Stormy -- you know that woman who claims she had a one night stand with Trump over a decade ago and wanted money. I think that's called extortion, but who cares. Let's go after Trump.
Yo e oh. Trump has got to go.
Evidence, snevidence. Don't make me no never mind.
Why doesn't Robert Mueller sue these liars for defamation of character, slander, libel?
Furthermore, why hasn't Hillary or Comey, or........
1
Bravo Judge Gertner!!!
7
Fox News has never been the 'news' from a Walter Cronkite or Huntley-Brinkley perspective. If the truth is told, then one must view any and all contributors to the Fox News Channel as individuals who believe that 'the news' should be entertainment not fact supported information provided to the public. When entertainment is the goal of a station, it loses its right to be called a 'News Station' and then morphs into Comedy Central or the Lafftv Channel. Don't misunderstand me, I believe comedy is a good thing and people can be offended by comedy, however, when you purport to be presenting the 'news' you don't have the liberty to weave unsupported conspiracy theory type innuendo into what people believe ought to be absent spin, comedy writers and liars.
1
Alan Dershowitz is playing a dangerous game. He is undermining people's faith in due process by suggesting that just because there is no evidence to support a claim doesn't mean there is no evidence hiding somewhere else. He's suggesting that the claim should still somehow stand regardless of lack of evidence. That is really dangerous. I say that if you have no evidence, your claims against someone are false and you should be held accountable for slander and defamation. Dershowitz is a dirt-bag and I sincerely hope he goes down in flames one of these days.
2
NV Fisherman,
Make you a deal, I and many others who Oppose Trump will give our solemn oath to accept the Mueller findings – including exoneration of Trump, if you will agree to accept negative findings on Trump if that is the ultimate conclusion.
Your silly attempt to establish independence about Mueller, and then your petty malicious remarks about him becoming a shoeshine boy or valet reveal your true colors in 4K HD.
To understand Mueller and his case will require waiting until THE FACTS AND EVIDENCE ARE REVEALED. It will also require opening one's eyes and mind to the knowable facts, truths, and observable and provable evidence.
I am literally sick of Trump supporters buying in to the witch hunt nonsense and propaganda of Trump and his media supporters.
Seriously, just ask yourself ONE QUESTION: Has Donald Trump ever for one single second acted like an innocent man with nothing to hide?
Mueller is a decorated war veteran, a man who has twice left lucrative private practice because he could not stomach defending guilty people, and has served this country with incredible dignity and honesty and character – three attributes Trump would need flash cards to even pronounce.
Mueller is quiet and respectful. Trump speaks of himself in the third person – a dead giveaway of an insecure megalomaniac.
3
What's in it for Hannity, Dershowitz, and Limbaugh that they have zero remorse about lying to their listeners? Just loads of money?
Sean Hannity and the others are engaged in self aggrandizement as much as baseless character assassination. They come up with some nasty lies and spread them, with the certain intent of appealing to their base. This is a group inot interested in knowing anything good, and for whom the truh is not at issue. It's all a magic trick, "Look over here (while I hide the truth over there.")
Their deranged viewpoints are psychotic and they keep spreading. Unfortunately, the best antidote is a strong Democratic campaign with candidates of good character who express good and positive values, who speak from a position of strength. It's unfortunate because I just don't see it....
Perfect time for Mueller to sue The whole pig sty of Fox revolting liars for defamation of character - then we can see who is admirable and who is abominable in court. Maybe Kimba Wood could hear that Case too.
1
Sean Hannity = lies, Rush Limbaugh=lies, Lies lies lies!
The real problem is these guys are so vested in being right, they will not consider the fact that they might be wrong.
If Mueller wasn’t on the right track, then why are these guys screaming so much.
I would like to point out especially that the Republicans were in control of Congress during the late 1990s, when the Committee held its hearings. Are Hannity et al. claiming that all of them were also involved in some kind of massive cover-up and conspiracy that has never, to this day, been revealed? By anyone - ever? Really? Their fans must really be - well, I leave that to you readers to supply your own descriptive adjectives for whoever watches Fox News and listens to alt-right conspiracy radio programs. Art Bell - I miss you! He had a lot of whacky and entertaining guests over the years, but he never went for these "deep state" conspiracy theories baloney sausage!
I used to hold Alan Dershowitz in high regard, but he’s just a political shill now and no longer worthy of my respect. Talk about chutzpah!
2
Alan liked the money fox threw at him. he said, OK and lost his credibility.
Hannity works for a fascist propaganda machine that operates under the name of Fox News. If that was any kind of a reputable news organization they wouldn't be peddling "fake new". Mueller is a good guy but they are preaching to small-minded bigots like themselves.
2
This makes me feel good. The more Hannity smears Mueller the more guilty he and the president looks. The only thing that wouldput the icing on the topof Trumps fall would be to see Fox News' embarrassment go to jail also.
Dershowitz shows us again — and again — that he knows from which direction the money flows.
1
Money is our madness. Money.
Money has the power to create and feed a very large family of liars, provocateurs, con-men, media, politicians, etc. These people are all invested in their own avarice & lust for wealth and all the luxury & decadence it brings. Such is America.
We, mainly Republicans, cut taxes for the rich. We do it often & with verve. We, the 'Christian' nation, have become the money-changers.
Mueller is just a guy that's getting in the way of the crime. And, Americans are such lazy and self-centered citizens that it's not too hard. Easily seduced by sport or shiny things, or distracted by melodramatic Presidents or celebrities, or enticed by prideful hate-mongering, We the People are a sad excuse of a democracy.
I am glad that the worst of the worst is now President, and the right-wing, Republican, billionaire/millionaire- financed media are lying and being despicable in his defense. Clarity.
Clarity at who is saying what. Clarity of who supports the evil of this man-child. Clarity of who you are, now.
The draft-dodger, claiming avoiding venereal disease was his 'Vietnam', and saying McCain and POW's aren't really 'heroes'. This is the Republican, right-wing, conservative, evangelical, Russian leader. Clarity.
Stand up America. Just be the good and compassionate people that we are, innately. In the South we call it 'good people'. Just be 'good people', simply.
This temporary greed/hate/evil will pass. And, we must help in it's demise. We the People.
3
Thank you Judge Gertner
2
So instead of the usual 2 + 2 = 17 logic that Hannity uses, his attacks on Mueller are 2 + 2 = a school of red herring. Hannity has descended into a cage match with Alex Jones for sleaziest liar of century.
1
Everyone knows that these entertainers are not journalists, and are invulnerable to facts. If you want to be counted among these clowns, by all means, stick with them. We are all judged by the company we keep.
I seriously don't understand how Mr. Dershowtiz still has a platform to voice his opinions, let alone a job at Harvard, after his campaign to bully UC Press not to publish a book that exposes the problems in his book, "The Case for Israel," and his aggressive pressure on DePaul University to reject Norman Finkelstein's tenure bid because he exposed falsities in his book (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77wcQhD1-c4). No wonder he is defending Trump.
2
I am hopeful that democrats gain a majority during the next election and the following elections. They then need to appoint a director of the FCC that actually has the peoples interest at heart.
That director then needs to review the outright garbage, lies and slander that is communicated by The Fox channels. If it is withing the law their operating license(s) needs to be reviewed to see if they can be held accountable to whatever extent is lawful. Of course Fox will scream to their viewers that they are being singled out but if we as a nation are to survive this dissemination of divisive garbage needs to be confronted, addressed and halted.
Rather hard to be calling Alan Dershowitz "my friend" theses days, isn't it, Nancy? I don't know about you, but a guy like Dershowitz who, in his quite obvious dotage, has lost his once-keen grasp of the law and has become a right-wing media stooge and propagandist, can be no friend of mine. He who sups with Trump should bring a long-handled spoon, but instead, it appears that Dershowitz is feeding on whatever scraps Trump and Hannity scrape into his dish. If Trump had a scintilla of intellect, perhaps Dershowitz might enjoy his company in the manner that, say, Gore Vidal enjoyed William F. Buckley, Jr.'s company. :) Alas, no spark there, just a once-prominent legal scholar prostituting himself in a sad cry for attention, not unlike Trump's own...
Hannity would be wise to shut up. He is a Cohen client and his loud mouth could sink him.
If they value their meager reputation Fox would be wise to dump Hannity in order to avoid drowning in the Trumpian swamp with him.
The more Hannity goes after Mueller the more it seems he something dirty to hide. The American public is watching him. Nor have we forgotten that he has already been accused of sexual harassment. Was she bought off? Let her come forward and free herself.
2
Of course they won't stop!! The more they repeat the lie, the more their viewers and listeners accept it. They are a big part of the dumbing down of America. They are even exceeded by the liar in chief. Can it get worse? Yes!! They will not stop smearing Mueller and Comey
Now that it's proven that Trump and Hannity are legally linked a la Cohen - who on earth would listen to either one of them talk about the other anymore, or listen to them talk at all for that matter?
1
Challenge Hannity to debate on TV.
Debate anything he asserts as truth.
Put him in his place.
Discredit the bum publicly.
See if he accepts the challenge.
It would be watched by tens of millions.
But, Hannity would be too chicken to participate.
Since Hannity and Limbaugh are clearly lying to their audiences why not say that directly? Why equivocate with sentences like "There is no evidence the assertion is true." The accusation is false and the Judge lays out a damning facts as to why. So say it: Hannity and Limbaugh et al are deliberately spreading information they know to be false. Equivocal language only gives the poisonous bacteria of right wing propaganda room to breathe.
1
trump and his cohorts have exposed the underbelly of our country and they have found that lies work. They have perfected the art of character assassination, especially as applies to the law enforcement community. The semi-literate and the completely ignorant are calling the shots and getting the face time they do not deserve. trump exposes his ignorance every time he opens his mouth. Hannity is a great example of what happens when an uneducated and witless creature is given the stage. How long will it take for voters to realize the have been made dupes, blindly following the "party line" which is plainly a pack of lies. We used to wonder how fascism comes to be; it is happening in America and until people wake up, it will overshadow any voices of reason.
1
Hannity, Limbaugh, and Fox and Unfriedlies are truly nobodies. They are crude loudmouths who could be considered whites trashers of civility. They fabricated false stories like the Clinton “pizza parlor” - truly damaging ideas that should be shut down. Fox is not journalism - it creates this maelstrom to generate money - at the expense of the country.
Where is the lawsuit against Fox News ? They are libel for allowing these folks to go on the air and spew lies all day and night. 40% of our populations digests it.Someone needs to go into the basement of Fox News and destroy the stepford wives machine.
1
"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."
No, those saying this, Hannity and Limbaugh and the rest of the Fox and alt-right internet ilk most especially, are liars, with the same utter disregard for fact and truth that oozes...no, gushes...from their beloved leader.
It's enough to almost make one consider taking Mr. Trump up on his desire to re-write the laws on libel.
As a collectivle, the no-evidence cretins cited are committing nothing less than terrorism with their country-wide carpet bombs of lies and defamation. Their platform is mass media, their weapons are the words and images that are produced, packaged and presented so slickly. Truth, among the casualties, may never quite be identifiable again. America has lost so much...
2
Shouldn't these faux news programs be labeled political advertising and regulated as such? Withe equal time required to correct lies?
1
My Dad always used to tell me--when people get nasty, look long and hard..Consider the source-not the words....Mr. Trump and the rest of the "Gang that could not shoot straight" are basically bottom tier criminals who got lucky with his election. The turf they are desperate to protect involves lots more taxpayer money and corrupt power brokerage than love of the Constitution.
Mr. Hannity, too, has built his career on a bigger mouth than dedication to truth or honesty. He is a somewhat intellectually challenged celebrity. built a career less on accomplishment than lots of loud noise.
I do not see one real PATRIOT marching with this band of simpering misfits...
Mr. Mueller served this country with dignity in combat, and with honor in public service. HIs critics are the bottom feeders who could not find a recruitment station to sign up and serve this country, or, frankly, pass the psych test if they did. Don't see any Bronze stars awarded for bravery to this crowd of "conspiracy" crybabies.
My Dad was right..Consider the source and figure out when being an American real hero became an obstacle to the search for truth and justice.
Trump and his minions are the weak link in America's chain. Mueller and the rule of law prove what the depth of real honor means....Give me a war hero over a bunch of rich waddlers on a golf course any time, any day....They demean themselves with their utter fear of truth.
My contempt grows each and every day. For them and their "cult" of whiners.
Since Fox News has no ethical standards, the only tactic that seems to work as a lie deterrent is an organized sponsor boycott by concerned citizens. Money speaks more effectively to Fox than logic, truth or any higher motivation. Make a list of Fox advertisers and let them know how unhappy you are as a customer with their support of dodgy news and right-wing propaganda. Poke their "optics" in the eye. Ask David Hogg how it works. Get the kids involved! Sic 'em!
1
Of course, Hannity, Limbaugh and Trump are not interested in the truth. They just manufacture any story that will support whatever conspiracy they are currently selling. They are fools, and so is anyone who listens to their nonsense.
2
Mueller is likely being smeared with this story from the looks of it. Guilt by association or happenstance being portrayed as fact. Live by the sword, die by the sword. This is no different than the daily smears the NYT puts on Trump and anyone associated with him. I wonder if Judge Gertner is equally offended. Doubt it.
Respondeat superior?
Where is the first amendment that slander is protected? Rightwing opinion is the formula for spreading hatred and profiting from it.
Ok, let's stipulate that Mueller is in the clear on this, but it does provide an example of what extremes, including criminality, the FBI is capable of resorting to in pursuit of it's own parochial objevtives.
I do not know about the case mentioned by the writer yet the adulation of Mueller by liberals and Dems is strange. He supported the dishonest claim that Iraq had WMDs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FWSnMNt0bM)
See an FBI 2003 archive: https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/war-on-terrorism
This is not smearing, just recalling inconvenient truths.
More garbage from the Trump mob. Mr. Mueller is getting too close for comfort into their criminal activities and they are getting desperate. Fox News can count on “the great unwashed” to believe them, the majority of us won’t.
Hannity is Trump's poodle without leash and barking without break to protect his master. Most of the FOX TV pundits are Trump's puppet. Truth is not important to them. May be Dershowitz has some ulterior motives or agenda or monetary interest and he always wants to be in lime light. Oxycontin addicted Rush Limbaugh is always outrageous and controversial and never cared for facts. I think special prosecutor will call Hannity for Michael Cohen investigation. Once Ted Koeppel told Hannity on his face that he is bad for America and I agree with it.
Mueller has more integrity in his little finger than all these lying media goons and buffoons put together. As far as I'm concerned, his investigation should be broadened to include all those attacking the Justice Department and the FBI to determine whether they too are guilty of obstructing justice and/or colluding with the enemy.
Why will no one who listens to Fox ever read or agree with this? Because of an allergy to truth.
Hannity is a co conspirator
So is paul ryan
So is mitch McConnell
So is devin nunes
So are many leading Republicans
They are terrified that if the scope and scale of their treason is revealed the Republican party will cease to exist and many of them will end in federal prison like Nixon's henchmen did.
1
From the increasing desperation of Trump's allies' attempts to get Mueller off his case, it's hard not to conclude that they know Trump is guilty and Mueller has the goods on him.
1
Down here on the third world we have something called the right to respond when someone is accused with no proofs. The accused have to have a judge permission and if he is granted he can respond in the same communication vehicle and time used by the accusers. Is there anything like that in US and would Mr. Muller be eligible?
There is certainly enough info for a serious investigation of how Mueller became special prosecutor . Despite the vehemence of the writer's defense clearly the Mueller investigation has gotten no where. Hillary Clinton's arrogant belief that she could get away with the State Dept. email fiasco because she was going to be the next president and the Obama Justice Dept. would let her slide did happen. Then the never Trump Washington insiders upped the ante with the bogus Russian interference charge.
3
There is no mystery about how Mueller became prosecutor.
"the Mueller investigation has gotten no where"
That's partially false and partially TBD.
"the bogus Russian interference charge"
We know they interfered, that's settled. Was the Trump campaign in on it? Well they certainly wanted to be, that's settled too. Did they succeed? That's TBD; it certainly hasn't been ruled out by anything we've seen yet. Despite all the complaints about "leaks" from Mueller's team, there actually haven't been any, so we don't know what cards he's holding.
There isn't any "info" suggesting anything improper about Rosenstein appointing Mueller, just the usual paranoid delusions involving secret conspiracies, "insiders," etc. After Trump botched firing Comey, DOJ needed someone who was experienced, independent, and not vulnerable to intimidation to take over the Russia investigation. Any list of candidates would have had Mueller's name at the top. It's the smears on Mueller that are provably bogus, not "the Russian interference charge."
2
Thank you Judge Gertner. I suspect this was a very tough decision to go to the press to set the record straight. Sadly in today's world we need to hear from honorable Judges in order to set the record straight.
Hannity may not be a journalist in the true sense of the word but he is a prime time host on a News network. Fox and the people they hire are entitled to their opinions. Their viewers are entitled to some level of basic decency and transparency.
We now know Hannity has personal skin in the game to discredit Mueller, the FBI, US attorneys and Judges. The conspiracy theory that the President and Fox news through it's mouth piece Hannity has been pushing could very well bring down citizen trust in our justice system. Without that trust the rule of law fails and we may well end up in total chaos.
If someone believed in conspiracy, you could believe that Hannity, Fox news and the President are trying undermine trust in the Justice system to protect themselves. You also might believe they conspired with a foreign government to take control of our government for their own personal gain and the gain of that foreign power.
I don't believe in conspiracy theory. I do believe in Robert Mueller's integrity and the integrity of the thousands of people who work for the FBI and Justice department and I have tremendous respect for the Federal judiciary.
Nice take.
Hey, what about the guy Mueller ruined in the anthrax case? For years he destroyed this man’s life. That cost we the taxpayers $5 million dollars.
4
Mitch McConnell is not allowing a bill to prevent the dismissal of Mueller to be voted on.....so in my view
Mitch McConnell is endangering our country.
Such lack of his oath of office to protect our country
borders on treason. Who in either the Senate or the
House will stand up for upholding their oaths of office.
To protect and defend....McConnell is disgusting..
3
Can't these people be sued for slander?
Have you no laws in the United States of America against defamation by TV and radio commentators?
2
Never let the truth get in the way for Trump and his allies as they try to obstruct the Mueller probe. They are despicable. What happened to Dershowitz. He will have no credibility left when this probe is over.
This is a first....Sean Hannity and his buddies in the right-wing lunatic fringe have never before expressed any concern about people who were "wrongfully imprisoned" or even wrongfully killed by police.......particularly when they have dark skin!
2
there is more data than the NYT and other Trump haters used for the faux "Russia" investigation. Mueller has packed his team with partisan Democrats ( not a single Republican) and these Democrats have a goal of finding anything to get Trump out of office. They are attempting a coup with the help of the NYT, WAPO, CNN, MSNBC and other main stream media. Do you think that people don't realize what is going on?
3
So, James....the judge is in on the conspiracy?
This is how Trump got elected folks. The GOP did a 2+ year smear campaign on Hillary Clinton. Comey's offense prior to the election didn't sway folks, people were already telling me how they couldn't vote for her because she was so "dishonest".
REALLY? SHE's dishonest??? So we have the most dishonest president ever - but oh brother - heavens to betsy - she would have been evil incarnate?
Yes crazy as it seems that is what the GOP purposely had somewhat rational and intelligent folks thinking. Bengazi was the start of the smear campaign. And truthfully, for older white men, a woman president was less preferable than a black man.
What's even more disheartening is that if Hillary did get elected Trump and the GOP would have tweeted her out of office - the smearing wouldn't have ended. What ever happened to liable laws? I agree w/Katy - there should be consequences for this terrible behaviour by our supposed president.
4
Dershowitz has gone over the edge bigly! That an attorney of his reputation tosses around unverified accusations like this as fact will forever taint his legacy. Has anybody figured out why he's in the tank for Trump?
2
I'm glad to see that two Sandy Hook parents are suing Alex Jones of Info Wars infamy for libel for fabricating and spreading the lie that no children were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School. More lawsuits for libel need to be brought against these liars like Jones, Hannity, Limbaugh and others on Faux news and conservative radio and put them out of business.
1
Hannity et. al. are complicit in Trump's signature style of conflict. When caught in something illegal, attack and defame the prosecution. He learned it from Roy Cohn, McCarthy's junkyard dog attorney, back in the communist witch hunt days. He's used in in his long history of racist real estate practices.
The most disturbing thing here is that people listen to this babble, thinking it's somehow real. It feeds on their worst instincts, and is at best divisive.
I lay the blame on education...no longer requiring a civics course, to graduate from high school.
2
With the imbecilic alt-right if it is not a lie it is a deliberate deflection and distraction from the topic and the truth. It is their only tactic and they do it over and over and over again.
1
Thank you Ms. Gertner for speaking up. But the truth will not hinder the Trump Mafia from smearing Robert Mueller.
Nor will the truth enlighten Trumpoons.
Trumpoons are the reason Trump and his mafioso can smear people, destroy America's reputation, undermine our republic , squash democracy and trash our values.
The Trumpoons have elected fellow Trumpoons to serve in every office of government. Besides the presidency, Trumpoons control both Houses of Congress and SCOTUS.
So long as we attempt to understand Trumpoons, feel sorry for Trumpoons' complaints and make excuses for their behavior, America will only be a moniker for Trumpoonville.
Trumpoons do not care if you have absolute, incontrovertible evidence and Jesus Christ as an eyewitness to the fact that Mr. Mueller did not participate in any FBI crime or cover up. Detective Joe Friday wanted the facts, "just the facts," but Trumpoons want their boogeyman hallucinations and freaky fantasies.
Trumpoons do not deserve compassion, sympathy, understanding (trying to understand the absurd, is absurd). Trumpoons must be dealt with using a 10-foot pole. They are deplorable, but they don't belong in a basket. They belong in a wing of Guantanamo Bay Prison for the mentally and morally impaired or deported far, far away, to Planet Trump.
2
Mr. Mueller is too big a person to ever sue these ranters for libel, but they all should be sued for telling lies about this man. Trump and his ilk are the crooks here, not Mueller. How Hannity, Limbaugh and others can get away with these lies is beyond me. But we certainly know why they assert these falsehoods as truth.
Truth is always a defense.
When one has nothing of substance to bring to the table, as, for example trump and his minion hannity, smears, childish third grade name calling, and innuendo are all that is left in their toolbox.
Sadly, trump and those who support him degrade the office of President by each of his foolish actions.
2
The accusations against Mueller manage to be insupportable, irrelevant, and insubstantial all at the same time.
Mueller must be a pretty remarkable guy if even professional slimers like these can’t get a droplet on him.
Congratulations, Mr. Mueller! You’ve passed the first trial! Keep it up!
1
Trump needs to fire Mueller ASAP. He's not uncovered anything real, binding or prosecutable. It's over.....
2
And you know this how? Please provide sources with links.
2
I'm always amazed that people do not understand that Fox and similar channels have no respect for them, that they are seen as suckers, a mindless mob not able to think critically or differentiate between lies and fact, masses who hungrily swallow hook, line and sinker anything that is fed to them – the goal being to keep them an angry mob lest they start thinking for themselves and realize that they are being taken for fools, manipulated to feed another's personal desires, never their own, unless one counts anger, insults, lies and mob rule as a personal desire, a goal to be attained.
2
Are there seriously no libel laws in the USA providing consequences for the likes of Fox News commentators maliciously slandering for personal and political gain?
1
Hannity consistently demonstrates no interest in the truth -- only in destroying anyone he sees as a threat to the right wing fascist agenda he, Fox News, the alt-right, and Trump are trying to impose on America.
1
I suppose it's all covered by the 1st amendment, so the lying continues with the aid of willing advertisers.
Your move.
2
Hannity is a showman and liar. Watching him on TV it is easy to see what a con man he is just by watching his face. We must Beware of actors posing as newsman. Fox News is not interested in the truth anyway. It is a propaganda machine not a news channel. American voters are often lazy and uninformed. They have taken Democracy for granted and shouldn’t have.
2
Judge Gertner. Thank you but now be careful. You will be next. Hannity, trump and their ilk have no honor.
Prime example of how "fake news" is truly created within Trump circles.
The Age of Lies propagated by the GOP and their lackeys is a disgusting phenomenon that must stop. Why aren't these people culpable for out and out lies? The blatant attack on the truth materially affects our elections. People vote for and believe in the GOP in part, based on pure lies by the folks mentioned in your article and their sleazy, ratings-oriented networks. Must we rely on boycotting advertisers to fight these self-promoting liars?
Dershowitz thinks he is doing a public service by appearing on Hannity's show and elsewhere and correcting the lies spewing from the mouth of the Murdoch poisonous dragon. But in fact, he is there to feed his own great ego. Judge Gertner, a person of great integrity and unimpeachable character, was too polite to him; she should have chastised him for feeding the dragon.
The talking heads on the right are seldom honest with the American public, which is an easy way to judge if something is true or not. They are simply shills for the 1% agenda of the Republican Party, leading gullible fools into supporting the ongoing transfer of the wealth of this nation to a few wealthy families. Unbelievable.
Mr. Hannity has convincingly reduced himself to the likes of Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh and other vitriolic, offensive and nonsense-spewing right-wing gas bags.
There is no return from that destination. Enjoy it Sean. You've certainly earned it.
1
Isn't slander a crime? Just wondering...
1
Not a crime. A tort.
Fox News : USA :: RT : Russia
Fox and Hannity have become the propaganda mouthpiece of the Trump administration.
This is unprecedented in our history.
How can so many people be so gullible.
1
Right wing "journalists" [sic] such as Hannity and Limbaugh simply are not interested in actual facts. I have no doubt that they are capable of reading this very well laid out piece, and then going back on their respective shows and continuing to defame Mr. Mueller.
Hannity and Trump: two rotting peas in a rotten pod: Others in this same pod are all as rotten and collectively they are making this once great nation rotten: Dignity & Respect, facts and truth, ethics and standards of conduct; all are being destroyed.
Hannity's fans could not care less about the truth - nor could Hannity, nor could his bosses at Fox. He'll continue to lie, and they'll continue to swallow it.
But we all know the name of a man who bought himself into the case of 4 black teenagers falsely convicted of rape. To share his ignorance, he took out full page ads in no less than 4 major newspapers calling for a return to the death penalty to deal with cases like theirs. In fact, he still maintains their guilt to this day despite irrefutable DNA proof to the contrary and a full confession from the actual perpetrator.
A Trump surrogate like Hannity calling Mr. Mueller corrupt is like Frank Nitti calling Eliot Ness corrupt.
1
Muller and anyone being defamed should sue. Let's see them repeat these lies under oath, then go to jail!
1
Thank you Judge Gertner.
1
Folks, when are we going to discover the full details of the Trump, Dershowitz, Epstein connection. It appears that Putin is blackmailing Trump and Trump is blackmailing Dershowitz. Nothing else would explain why a man with the reputation of Alan Dershowitz would put it all on the line - night after night - to defend the president by making wild and uniformed claims. Dershowitz appears completely foolish, just as POTUS.
Hannity's middle name is "Smear". As to facts, Sean invents his own.
We had a coup on our democratic election in 2016 that installed trump and Republicans in full power. Now, even without a coup attempt from the rest of us, they - Republicans and trump - are doing exactly as Erdogan of Turkey is doing after an actual coup attempt - persecuting any and all of their political rivals - direct and perceived - including the press, nullify their freedoms while taking it over (FOX, Sinclair obstruct Time Warner, threaten Washington Post, etc.) and the take over and elimination of true justice. Trumplicans have no problem roughing up peaceful protesters with their white supremacist thugs like Erdogan did during his last and previous visits to our country and by on-air thugs.
I hope Mueller will investigate Nunes and others on obstruction of justice charges and malicious wrongful prosecution when he is done with the trump-Russian administration's coup against our democracy.
2
Interesting that the conservative media are latching on to this false imprisonment case in support of a man who promoted the death penalty for the men falsely accused and convicted in the Central Park jogger case. Hmmmm...
Like so many others, I'm proud and grateful that we have outstanding people like Mr. Mueller serving our country. All of these wingnuts and perverts who are attempting to smear him only prove the value of what he's doing - and doing so well. They also prove that the people he's investigating probably are guilty and should be convicted and removed from office.
2
Mueller may have had nothing to do with the 4 men imprisoned falsely while he was head of the Boston FBI office, but the Boston FBI and US Attorney office during Mueller’s time there was rife with scandals involving local police, state and local city corruption, not to mention political and judicial corruption. And that corruption infected the state house still under the Senate Majority leader William Bulger, mob boss Whitey Bulger’s brother. Judge Gertner is defending Mueller very well while omitting areas where Mueller was missing in action. Progressive liberal judges like Nancy Gertner, David Nelson and others advanced justice in many important civil rights and organized crime cases. But to defend the Mueller era FBI and federal prosecutor’s office of the 1980s when not just 4 thugs were falsely imprisoned—-well, it was also the time when Boston and other Bay State cities were besieged by violent drug gangs, complaints of police brutality and youth gun homicides.
Correction: Dates of Mueller’s FBI tenure were from 2001 to 2013. His time as Assistant US Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts was 1982-1989 when major drug trafficking and unsolved Mob killings from the 1960s-1970s period remained unsolved, for many were ordered by FBI informants and associates of James “Whitey” Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang.
Absolute terror continued in the 1960s -1980 streets in Boston’s South End, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Revere, and South Boston. But as long as Whitey Bulger’s hitman and FBI informant John Martorano’ s victims were African Americans like the 2 young men and a chorus girl (Martorano confessed to 20 murders after his arrest in 1995). For his turning state witness in the 2002 trial of corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, he served only 12 years of his life sentence. Upon his release in 2007 and with Mueller’s approval, Martorano received $20, 000.00 from the U.S. Justice Dept. for his cooperation. Meanwhile, the financiers, insurers and underwriters of the organized illegal drug trade in Boston and elsewhere still remain unknown and at large, reaping fortunes, as the drug trade continues. Whether the street dealers never arrested during Mueller’s tenure in the US Attorney’s office or during his FBI tenure were petty ones like the victims of Martorano, or Boston’s Marvin Clark, or major traffickers —all arrests were never fatal to the drug financiers Mueller missed.
Oh that Hannity was only so concerned about the many people who sit is US prisons for crimes they did not commit. Of course, those stories dont play as well with the Fox viewers. Central Patk 5 anyone?
The kinds of people who listen to Hannity and Limbaugh for content are not likely to read a federal judge's account of what actually happened.
As a freshman in college, I wrote an essay basically concluding that the German people were flawed in bringing Hitler to power. Such things couldn't ever happen in America, of course! My professor disagreed, and suggested perhaps I was oversimplifying somewhat. Or over-generalizing.
It's obvious to me now that he was right, and I was wrong. The kind of people who believe things without reading, without reflecting, or employing common sense, the kind of people who shout "Lock Her Up!" and rough up protesters at their candidate's bidding; well, these are the very same people who would happily participate in rounding up "undesirables" and shipping them off to wherever. Once they're gone, does it really matter where they went? What, they're all being murdered? Fake news!
I'll tell you now, 40 years later, what I think the fundamental difference is between Germans and Americans. Germans have learned from their experience, and tried their best to make amends, and to make their country a better place. Meanwhile, in America, too many have learned nothing from that experience, and are trying to take us to that place to which no modern German would ever go again.
3
She should have been locked up--Comey didn't have the courage, or was told not to.
Mr. Dershowitz seems nearly unhinged these days. His family should suggest he speak less publicly and retain what remains of his reputation.
It's a shame.
Interesting that Fox News' new darling - Alan Dershowitz - is persecuting Robert Mueller with the same self-righteous and self-promoting zeal with which he defended O.J. Simpson in the Nicole Brown Simpson murder trial. Makes one wonder what may be more important to him - his own fame or the pursuit of truth and justice in the Mueller investigation.
The right wing mouths are not to be trusted but Mueller is one also.
I remember him like it was yesterday when he headed the FBI telling Congress that Iraq had WMD's.
If your Republican president is in legal trouble, then lie. Do anything to discredit the investigation.
They don’t need no stinking evidence.
1
People, read the history of the Weimar Republic and its downfall! Television producers, make documentaries! How them repeatedly. As a history major in college who concentrated on modern European history, and who continues frequently to read about it, it is evident that what is going on in America now is very similar to what happened during the rise of the National Socialist Party in the early 1930's in Germany. Mobilize every voter you can ( presuming that the Republicans don't find some way to stop or interfere with the voting in November. The "Big Lie" is here, and fighting it off will take enormous effort from all truly patriotic Americans.
1
Thank you, Judge Gertner.
Why is there no coverage to be found on what may be the biggest story of 2018?
https://desantis.house.gov/_cache/files/8/0/8002ca75-52fc-4995-b87e-4358...
Well?
Mueller’s hand picked team of virulently anti-Trump hatchet men is enough proof.
Another Big Lie. But since Fox News and all the other right-wing outlets have trained their audience to kill any and all messengers but them, good luck trying to set the record straight.
they are like degenerate cartoon characters that through some horrendous disaster have become human
sounds like defamation at the very least and libel in all probability as well. Someone ought to pay for a smear like this...and if they can't afford it, go to prison.
These dangerous and influential characters have no limits to the lies they wield on a daily basis. Fox News, in particular, is the habitual perpetrator of conspiracy theories and misinformation. The birther nonsense, Benghazi and the Pizza Parlor /Child abuse rumors all festered in Fox petri dish of filth and promoted by screeching, talking heads like Jeannie Pierro or Giuliani.
Interestingly, everyone of them carries their own baggage .It will be fascinating to see what Michael Cohen and Hannity really interacted about.Unfortunately, most of the adherents to these lies and exaggerations are poorly educated and probably live for the latest edition of the Inquirer to fill their bleak lives.
Hannity like Trump uses a smear campaign to assail the truth. It doesn't exist in his world or Trump's. They will lie to save their disturbed souls and status. Both are neo fascists purveyors of propaganda. Ironically, their prevarications will cause their downfall. It is poetic justice that Hannity's name came up in Judge Wood's court. Hannity will be exposed for what he is, a self serving, egocentric maniac. He and Trump's past will catch up with them. The die is cast. They can dissemble all they want, but to no avail. The nefarious troika of Trump, Cohen and Hannity will do time in prison. And they won't be calling the shots if they are smart. There's a different set of rules. It's survival of the fittest,and none of them are in great shape.
All major news organizations should carry this article as front page news. Fox "News" and other right-wing "news" organizations need to be called on the carpet for every piece of propaganda they spew.
Sean Hannity spews nothing but lies. His pushing of the Seth Rich crazy conspiracy theory was the lowest point of a career of nothing but low points. He is part of what makes Fox News a journalistic superfund site, and a disgrace to the profession.
1
The term Intellectual sociopaths comes to mind when I hear these individuals talk about Mueller , the worst influence to Society and an intellectual Mafia in my opinion
Hannity, Limbaugh and the rest of the fox and sinclair crew are all as we know, the pillars of truth and honesty. Honestly folks, get a grip.
Despite an NYTopinion, if I believe the entire article is true, my take away is FBI is corrupt, wrongly allowed to imprison 4 men and shafted taxpayers $100 million. Mueller was the FBI director later on.
Maybe Hannity and Limbaugh should be arrested for SLANDER and LIBEL!
That’s what would happen in a sane world ......
Goebbels' maxim that "if you tell a lie often enough people will believe it" is alive and well on the political right. At least Goebbels was honest -- he admitted his lies. That is more than Hannity, Limbaugh, et al have done and will do.
Hannity and others that are blaming the special counsel are partisans and Hannity is not shy of saying that he is a conservative, a Republican and a staunch Trump defender. He has also clarified what his interaction has been with Trump's private attorney Cohen. As an independent with an open mind wanting what is best for the country? I do listen to Hannity's monologue on Fox news as I read the NY Times and BBC news. I don't consider stating facts and rehashing history is smearing. If there are flaws in the past of one of the most important special counsel of our time, I certainly would like to know what they were as it enables me to decide the credibility of the investigation. As we continue to be the divided States of America, I choose to follow both sides because they are still Americans and as such I would like to see fairness to all my fellow Americans. Our president is not above the law and I agree 100% with that but also he and others are also not unequal or below the law. Just because there is partisan and personal hatred against our president at the current time among a sizeable population of the country especially those living in the urban areas of the country, there is no justification for a lack of a fair investigation. Is it fair to go back to smearing our president for what affairs he had as a private citizen as long as that was legal but that had nothing to do with govt or holding elected office? If it is then Mueller's role if any in FBI scandal is reasonable.
1
There is an old man from Queens
Who says not what he means
But he has Sean Hannity
To defend his insanity
And surely nothing is as it seems!
264
Nihilism; how prosaic.
The new Ogden Nash? hmmm
These men are not just wrong, your honor. They are lying.
199
Thank you for this article; very illuminating. However I do not see the likes of Sean Hannity, et al allowing something like the truth getting in the way of their chosen narrative. It has not in the past, nor do I expect it to in the future.
Hannity, Limbaugh, et.al. are not, and never have been “journalists “ in the true definition. They’re rabble rousers whose sole function is to increase the size of their audience...that of course means more revenue for Fox, etc., and more revenue for Hannity, Limbaugh.
Who knows what these guys really believe? They may not believe in anything but their own wallets.
But, they have a large audience...the wannabe tough guys, those who are “in the know”, the angry ones, the “good old days” dreamers and the simply unreasoning naive.
3
Let's see if I have the story correctly summarized. The FBI suborned perjury and withheld exculpatory evidence that resulted in the false conviction of four men in an effort to protect one or two confidential informants. The men spent 30 years in prison or died in prison.
The men were eventually exonerated, but not because the FBI or Justice Department came forward, but because of evidence brought into the public arena when one of the confidential informants was ultimately captured after decades of being a fugitive. The FBI and Justice Department knew for 30 years the four men were innocent.
When the judge adjudicating the wrongful imprisonment suit for the two men and the families of the two men who died in prison has now asserted that because Mueller was never explicitly named in the lawsuit, that it is atrocious to suggest that he has any culpability in the events.
It is doubtless true that there was not any evidence presented to her that legally proves that Mueller was involved. But it is incredible that she complains when others point to the corruption of the FBI under Mueller. She has no knowledge that he is innocent and he was the boss ruling over the corrupt FBI.
This group, led by Don the Con himself, has never considered the truth as an obstacle to providing a story to support their point of view. As Comey has stated, the "president" has only a passing relationship with the truth. That extends to his defenders as well.
3
"absence of evidence is not conclusive evidence of absence..."
Maybe I'm naive, but wouldn't due process of law mean that mean that legally "evidence of absence" has no place in accusation? Especially when the matter has been thoroughly investigated, charges have been brought and tried, convictions have been achieved, and the guilty have never made an accusation of association? After all, wouldn't the defense attorney's for Condon & Rico have looked for every possible superior officer to share the blame?
Note too the source of the assertion about a Mueller letter opposing release came from Michael Albano whose chief of staff was one of thirty people investigated by the FBI and convicted for corruption.
Sorry Mr Dershowitz. You sully yourself by this continued dithering. It is insufficient to cease making the accusation. Now you need to go on the record and recant.
2
Judge Gertner was a stalwart defense counsel before being appointed to the bench, and she was a stalwart judge thereafter. Her credibility is unimpeachable. On a comparison of trustworthiness of Gertner versus Hannity, Limbaugh and other right-wing commentators, Gertner soars above them. This column can be believed.
6
It's something just short of amazing when Hannity and Limbaugh decry wrongful imprisonment. Usually, they're standing in the front row chanting "lock him (or her) up!"
If Mueller had actually found something, we would have heard about it by now. The fact that he's chasing salacious T&A instead of facts suggests he has none. Just like Ken Starr v. Bill Clinton. Although Clinton actually did commit a misdemeanor in office, and was rightfully impeached.
1
The more you tell an untruth the more it is likely to believed by both the general audience and, importantly, by the perpetrator of the lie. We can see the effect of such by the fact that POTUS' constant screaming "fake news" has had on Americans' acceptance of his positions.
1
In earlier times, this was called swift-boating. It still stinks.
Ah, Spring!
The sham-crocks are coming up on the White House lawn.
Don't forget that Hannity willingly, eagerly, works for Rupert Murdoch. Don't forget that Murdoch willingly, eagerly, employs Hannity. Murdoch's got a whole stable of Hannitys.
I keep revisiting the thought that we might have dismissed the beliefs and warnings of mid-19th Century Nativists perhaps too soon.
The function of Hannity is as a quick test for what is most likely to be wrong.
1
Based on reading a gamut of news reports from many sources I think this entire investigation is bogus on its face. He leads it, seemingly with gusto, with no concern for getting to the truth in a timely fashion that America deserves, so yes he and his organized cabal of genius lawyers are bogus also. They range far and wide looking for ruskies under every bed but only find other genius lawyers or entrap people for "lying to the evolving greatest lying organization we've seen since the McCarthy days, the FBI"
I personally do not trust this lame organization after their many miscues - Ruby Ridge and Waco, to name two. And hey they lied about these actions - see the trend of a rogue organization in need of s serious review and overhaul.
1
I heard Prof. Dershowitz on tv this week protesting that he loved the Constitution and wasn't a GOP hack. Well, I understand that he pays his $200k for a Mar-a-Lago membership and he certainly plays into the Fox script denigrating Mueller. Of all people, he knows the impact of words and he is not careful. He is a disgrace and yes, a Fox complicit puppet. You can't take back what you've asserted on Hannity's show.
4
sadly, do you think "no evidence to back up their charges" even remotely matters to a Trump supporter.
I find it so unsurprisingly infuriating that law enforcement is so "corrupt" to Trump only when he is the subject of an investigation, but by his words, deeds and actions, law enforcement is scrupulous and honest and brave and always in the right when, say, when a unarmed black man is shot.
Given the rather black and white facts - assuming the author of this piece is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe that she is not - wouldn't Hannity and Limbaugh be guilty of libel? It's high time these obstreperous windbags are held accountable for the lies that they tell.
To stop the lies of Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, Ingraham, Carlson, Jones, Trump, et al. we need to stop their money, which is FOX.
I personally boycott Fox everything, from their sports TV to entertainment (movies). We all have to sacrifice, for me is no Fox NFL. Do it people!
4
Funny.
The more Mueller remains silent, the louder the far Right gets.
Brilliant strategy on the part of Mueller.
2
As they attempt to smear Mueller, let’s remember this.
Donald Trump repeatedly claimed exemption from serving in the Vietnam war because of bone spurs and publicly stated that dealing with venereal disease risks because of his promiscuous lifestyle was his “personal Vietnam”.
Robert Mueller volunteered to serve as an officer in Vietnam - he could have gone straight to law school. In December 1968, he earned the Bronze Star with 'V' distinction for combat valor for rescuing a wounded Marine under enemy fire during an ambush that saw half of his platoon become casualties. In April 1969, he received an enemy gunshot wound in the thigh, recovered, and returned to lead his platoon until June 1969. For his service in and during the Vietnam War, his military decorations and awards include: the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V", Purple Heart Medal, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals with Combat "V", Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with three service stars, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Parachutist Badge.
3
Does America under Jeffrey Sessions and the Roberts supreme court continue to actually have a system of Justice?
Is it possible to take Sean Hannity to Court for Slander and frequent false statements against Muller or countless other Department of Justice officials, innocent of false accusations?
There is really only one remedy. The American people need to make it very expensive for Fox to employ Sean Hannity. He is complicit and compromised. Boycotts? Check. Relentless bad press? Check. But what will work is this: Rupert Murdoch must be blocked from his SkyTV merger ambitions. Then, and only then, will he abandon Donald Trum.
1
Hannity and Limbaugh have never been concerned about the wrongly imprisoned before. Has anyone ever heard them rail against a broken system that wrongly imprisons innocent African Americans? Of course not. They're trying to discredit an investigation to protect a con-artist. They don't care if they have to distort the truth to do it, because they're con-artists, too.
2
The same invective directed at Trump, Hannity, et al should have been directed at Fox Lies Inc about 10 years ago. When the post mortem on US democracy is written, chapter 1 should be devoted to Rupert Murdoch. He recognized that white working class America never reads anything, and could be led into an alternative reality of his creation via TV. We have an entire generation now who has been carefully cultivated to get their tribal lies from one source, and no other source will ever be considered until they literally pass from this earth. As others have said, Fox Lies Inc has succeeded in splitting the country irreparably, making the organization guilty of treason and sedition. But to what end? Labeling lies as news should be illegal, they are using public airwaves after all. The situation is not lost, if there are ~ 40 million Fox Lies Inc followers, there are ~ 280 million of "the others" who must vote for truth and ethics now! From my own experience, unfortunately, most Americans are still to busy with life to grasp the details going on in our government right now, and they just think things will turn out OK. We are in much more trouble than even we think, because voter apathy is still very common, even now.
1
This is where Trump's brought us in a little over a year. He may be incompetent in governance, but he sure knows how to organize conspiracy theories.
The preparation for discrediting the entire FBI with constant accusations is underway by Trump, Fox News and the other satellite talk shows. No evidence is needed for the 40%. Thanks to WaPo for this article and Nancy Gertner for writing it.
2
Trump = Aqualung
I demand an immediate investigation into Dershowitz' defense of Claus von Bulow, by which I mean to say that I am way past done with his screaming disinterest in evidence.
By the way, when WAS the last time he stood up for anybody who wasn't wealthy, connected, and right-wing?
1
How dare they smear Robert Mueller, Bush/Cheney Administration flack who participated in all manner of policies enabling torture, mass surveillance, infiltration of anti war groups, bad intelligence on top of general base line incompetence. Back then they thought he was a great guy, like everybody does now.
Hannity is part of the Trump propaganda machine. His words are as factual as Trumps. Meuller, on the other hand, is a serious man who is a Republican. He simply is doing his job to the best of his ability. He does not smear or lie.
'Smearing, name-calling, slinging insults', its what America is now.
I have to read European news outlets to find out what's happening in the real world outside the Washington bubble of hateful petty bickering.
What a slur. Sean Hannity has no shame. And people with no shame tend to do things that skirt ethics, and the law. Failure to disclose that he relied on advice from Trump's personal lawyer was unethical. I wonder what else he has to hide.
Who knew that Hannity was so deeply concerned about wrongful imprisonment?!?!!? I look forward to his passionate support of the Innocence Project.
I hope Mr. Muller takes a page from the trump handbook and takes aggressive legal action against Fox as well as personal liable suits against Dershowitz, Hannity, etc.
Perhaps mutlimillion dollar slander suits will wake up Mr Murdoch and stop him from destroying our civilization.
1
What goes around comes around. Glad to see that Mueller is not the squeaky clean guy he was portrayed. He is dangerous man. His breaking of the lawyer client privilege is a step too far. He crosses the law in too many cases. We need a prosecutor to deal with him.
I do not trust him or anything he does. He breaks the law at ever turn - he should be fired and go on trial himself.
He did not break attorney client privilege. Stop lying!
And what law did he break? Be specific and provide links to your sources.
1
I used to have some respect for Mr. Dershowitz but since he has become a Trump apologist and defender he has sunk to the level of a disreputable ambulance chaser in my eyes. Attempting to discredit Mr. Mueller reminds me of what the sordid republicans did to another hero John Kerry. These individuals have no morals, ethics, or even an ounce of humanity to speak of. Liars and cowards all.
1
The brilliance of Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors is their sustained silence.
1
Thank you Ms. Gertner for the excellent clarification and the article overall.
I'll take your view of this matter any day of the week, especially given the character content of Hannity, Limbaugh, and yes, Nunes, who all have misrepresented the facts. But, I guess that's the Republican value system at work these days...
Save a Republic, remove a Republican.
2
To people with critical thinking skills who can weigh evidence, the fact that the propagandists are working overtime to discredit Mueller and the investigation, is itself prima facie evidence that the investigation needs to go on unhampered and charges forthcoming tried in a court of law and not the court of public opinion.
9
I'm pretty confident that Mr. Mueller, at this stage in his life and career, isn't troubled by the cheap shots being aimed his way by the talking heads and pundits, as being a leader it comes with the territory. It unfortunately does, however, speak volumes about the public critics, many of whom were hiding in ivory towers or deferments whilst Mr. Mueller was volunteering to serve his country.
8
Things have gone so far and gotten so bad that, at this point, if any of the individuals desperately smearing Mueller could be proven to have made truthful claims about anything at all ever, I'd have to start preparing for the end times.
5
Another coordinated assault on the truth by Fox and Friends. Americans elected to follow the prince of lies, aka DT, and now the good ones like Judge Gertner have to expend all this effort just to get the facts straight. What a waste.
11
Since when did the republicans ever care about wrongfully imprisoned men? But they are all about accusing others of commiting crimes if they are liberal or of color (Read Clintons).
7
The real scandal is not Robert Mueller. It's the GOPs continuing support and deference to a man who is completely unsuited to be president of this country and is, in fact, incompetent. If the GOP and its supporters don't like what's going on they can do something about it that can help America be the country it thinks it is: start to behave like adults and refuse to support our pathetic excuse for a president and his equally pathetic staffers. They could try representing the interests of average Americans rather than their campaign donors.
America doesn't need people like Sean Hannity telling us how to think or what to feel. We don't need it from the Democrats either. What we need are senators, congresspeople, governors, and other officials who, while working in the government and getting paid with our tax dollars, work for us and not the Koch Brothers, Exxon Mobil, or other corporations that lobby for special treatment and then hurt us.
President Trump-et should have hired competent people rather than people who looked good in their positions. He should have read the job description for being president instead of slamming Obama or implying that only stupid people pay taxes. The president HAS to pay his taxes.
I hope Mueller finds enough evidence to convince the American people that Trump and the GOP are not working for America, that they see nothing wrong with lying, cheating, and stealing from us. We need a competent president, not a Trump-et.
11
Mueller, a Comey mutant-twin and good friend, came from the swamp to protect the swamp--that's the "scandal" replete. FBI malfeasance--e.g., McCabe, Comey-Lynch--makes the point.
3
And yet you people can't provide a shred of evidence.
1
One of the great ironies is how Trump has continually called for strengthening libel laws while he and his deranged and dangerous supporters continually libel and slander honorable people doing their jobs.
14
Alan Dershowitz has chosen the team of Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, and Gingrich and Trump. He is unworthy of his own reputation. No more room for excuses.
9
"If they do, they should produce it."
That is absurd on the face of it. Since when have they ever made clear what they're talking about — pfff! Adjectives and epithets work much better than refutable specifics.
4
My family and I lived in Boston during the timeframe that Alan Dershowitz is referring to. It is pathetic that he is destroying his own creditability from his off the wall statements on CNN and defending statements that are not based on any evidence. It is very sad to see him end his career in the gutter with the rest of the Fox group
9
Trump's ardent defenders now take up the cause of wrongful incarceration when it can be used to smear Mueller, yet oddly Hannity et al had no problem with Donald Trump's full page ad in the New York Times advocating for the death penalty for the innocent Central Park Five.
One just might come away with the notion that they are not sincere in their criticism.
5
Thanks, Judge. The Right has unfortunately learned that they can "Swift Boat" an honorable civil servant. I hope they are not successful this time.
16
Evidence? Since when do far-right conservatives need evidence? They pretend facts and data don't exist, so expecting interest in truth would be foolish at best. Intellectual dishonesty is how these inventors of conspiracy live their nasty little lives.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
3
Another investigation seems to be needed, namely, what is Trump's group paying Hannity to produce all the lies? This is getting beyond ridiculous. Hannity keeps spouting lies in defense of Trump, over and over. What is Fox being promised?
14
People don't embarrass themselves, like Hannity and Dersh are, for nothing. Maybe there's more to the real estate deal Hannity was discussing with Cohen, the one that didn't involve a third party.
Machiavelli would understand immediately. Hannity and Limbaugh would say anything to keep the Republicans in power. Even pure fantasy. Dershowitz is more complicated. It would help to challenge their lies and hold them accountable
3
I look forward to Sean Hannity, born-again crusader against wrongful conviction, taking up the cause of Leonard Peltier. He is almost certainly a victim of fabrication of evidence by a rabidly anti-Indian FBI and has languished in prison for decades.
8
These are exactly the kinds of articles that need to be appearing in newspapers of record, like the NYT. Firsthand accounts that directly refute the lies being spread by right-wing propagandists.
Free speech is the cornerstone of any democracy, but how can it be legal to knowingly spread false information which maligns important institutions that are the foundations of our Republic?
13
If he were not associated with spreading disinformation before (which he is), including just outright bigotry, racism and prurient anti-gay propaganda, Hannity is now revealed to be part of this Trumpian cabal through his no-longer-secret relationship with Michael Cohen. The question is: will Fox News do anything about it? Will the Fox audience wake up to Hannity's propensity for dangerous lies and targeted hate speech?
10
It is ironic that those who insist that the mainstream media engages in propaganda on behalf of the left are themselves ardent patrons of a corps of political hacks who engage in lobbing verbal grenades at their opponents and calling it journalism.
5
I join others in feeling contempt for those accusers whose lies are attempting to smear Mueller. And again, like others, I feel angry that the right to free speech, USA style, is used so egregiously and without proper legal consequence. Note though, that this is an opinion piece. Let us see it become a fully researched news item, properly pursued by the journalists of NYT. Let us hear fully the accusations of bias and dishonesty against those who are vocalising these untruths. And let us hear, soon, a response from the FBI who should, surely, be investigating these calumnies.
2
Evidence is so old fashioned in this era of 'alternate facts'.
5
Thank you Judge for your statement and you possess the facts relating to the case. But, it is not only Hannity raising these questions. The Boston Globe article from apparently 1970 https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/1970/01/19/one-lingering-question-for-... but referencing events in the 1990s had this:
"Albano was appalled that, later that same year, Mueller was appointed FBI director, because it was Mueller, first as an assistant US attorney then as the acting US attorney in Boston, who wrote letters to the parole and pardons board throughout the 1980s opposing clemency for the four men framed by FBI lies.
Of course, Mueller was also in that position while Whitey Bulger was helping the FBI cart off his criminal competitors even as he buried bodies in shallow graves along the Neponset.
“Before he gets that extension,’’ Mike Albano said, “somebody in the Senate or House needs to ask him why the US Attorney’s office he led let the FBI protect Whitey Bulger.’’
This article has no date but the initial posting date is from 1970. The article raises questions including when it was written or modified.
3
Speaking of the courts, where are the lawsuits for defamation? Part of curbing FoxBreitbart's appetite for lies is using the civil court, and charge Dershowitz as well. Blizzards of suits. Seems to me that Stormy's lawyer knows how. Don't leave honest law enforcement out to battle by itself.
4
I cannot see what Mueller is trying to accomplish other than justify the millions his investigation is costing the American public. I am an independent person but breaking the lawyer client privilege is just too much. Mueller should get a real job like valeting cars here in Las Vegas. It is a good decent job with lots of cash tips. A shoeshine boy is a good alternative.
34
NVFisherman - of course you can't see what Mueller is trying to do. The reason for this, is that the investigation is ongoing and no details have been as yet released. As for lawyer-client privilege - there may not be any. Trump has proclaimed over and over that he knows nothing of the Stormy Daniels situation and Cohen has said that he acted of his own accord and not as Trump's attorney in the matter - having paid her from his own pocket (funny). As such, the government is entitled to investigate any crime that might have been committed. Furthermore - my great love for lawyers notwithstanding - attorneys, like presidents, are not above the law and as such if they're suspected of wrong doing, they should be investigated.
~Have a good day.
175
Given that Mueller gave up a 1.5 million/year law firm partnership to do this job I'd say he has better options.
By the way, your knowledge of the extent of the attorney-client privilege is as extensive as your awareness of Mueller's external circumstances.
Hint as a starter: The privilege covers "communications." As trump has denied ANY communications with Cohen over Stormy Daniels, NOTHING Cohen did regarding that case falls within the privilege.
130
There's no attorney client privilege if the attorney violated the law.
You have to acknowledge that Trump is hiding stuff. There's a reason he never released his tax returns.
115
I think the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are the ones we can't trust and seem willing to lie to suit their ends.
7
"Sean Hannity and others are blaming the special counsel for one of the F.B.I.’s worst scandals. But there is no evidence to back up their charges."
EVIDENCE....!! What an outmoded concept!
7
Since when did facts ever matter to Fox News? They have always been about pushing their message, and never been about informing people of the truth (except Shepard Smith who is their token asset of journalistic credibility)
4
Thank you, your Honor. Clarity and truth will someday return as the antidote for the venom from these serial liars, conspiracy theorists, and low-life media characters.
3
Assuming absence of evidence is not evidence of Meuller's time machine where he goes back & cleans up any discrediting dirt from all files, Hannity & Dershowitz are violating Reagan's cardinal rule: Thou shalt never speak badly of another republican.
The reigning king of back-spin & dirty tricks weaponized so effectively at political enemies is none other than Newt, who's been all over the map on fellow gopper Mueller.
If Gingrich suddenly abets this strategy to make Meuller out to be a virtual accomplice of the old Boston mob then the fix is in.
This is how they do it, and it works every time.
2
The “untruthful” machine aka Fox News is at it again with the usual suspects, a group of shameless people, of zero personal integrity with license. This is maddening behavior that is impossible to prevent. The Trump supporters will eat it up while others will be given doubt to question Mueller’s involvement. This is a nasty game of the Conservative echelons of the news world without regard for morality or consequences.
2
So obvious. These talking heads are grasping at straws to support and defend the nightmare we now have in the oval office. Democracy dies in darkness.
5
Thank you, your Honor, but Hannity fans don't care about reality. The Daily Delusion delivered by Fox News is quite sufficient.
2
60% of the population understands the basis of collusion conspiracy theories that spew from right wing provocateurs. The other 40% are uneducated and/or slavish sycophants and political lemmings that represent the Trump/GOP base.
Dershowitz should know better than to fall into the camp of the latter and loudly broadcast that he now understands just how wrong and misled he was to carry water for Trump and, ultimately, Russia. Shame on him.
4
In times like these, appreciating irony can bring a wry smile. Hannity and the rest will go to comically ridiculous lengths to seek out dirt on Mueller, a man universally regarded as having a high degree of integrity. Meanwhile, not a peep about Donald Trump - a man so bereft of integrity that scandalous behavior falls out of the sky all around him. The double standard is so...what's a polite way of saying "like getting hit on the forehead with a hammer...ahh - palpable that all you can do is laugh. On the other hand, millions of gullible people believe this trash. That's a bit less funny.
2
Since when have inconvenient facts deterred the like of Hannity, Limbaugh and for that matter trump from attacking and smearing the names of those they oppose? Sadly, dershowitz has become one of them.
3
Limbaugh and Hannity are not ignorant fools. If so, we could explain their false statements as the ravings of weak minded imbeciles. Instead they are serial liars just like the president they support. Unfortunately, millions tune into these charlatans daily and have their minds poisoned with this tripe.
That's why Trump maintains support around 40% in polls. That's why absurd lies were believed about Obama and Hillary. And that's why our country remains in deep trouble going forward.
One or two blue waves might provide the opportunity to restore some media truthfulness and balance, but sustained progress will require an engaged public and structural changes.
These changes include campaign finance reform with harsh punishment for violations. We also need to overturn Citizens United and the doctrines that corporations are people and money is speech. Lastly, we should reinstitute the fairness and equal time media provisions gutted during the Reagan administration.
Honest debate by partisans is one thing. But constantly lying out of the belief that the ends justify the means is disgraceful and ultimately proves the weakness of your positions.
4
Mueller and "Comedian" can dish it out but they can't take it. Very obvious
The reason people in America are are more polarized than ever is because half listen to buffoons like Sean hannity and Donald trump and half think there’s not much to hear from these two,
The poor judge doesn't realize that we are living in a post-fact world of endless slander and false conspiracy. Vaccines, evolution, climate change, pizza-gate, Birtherism, crowd-size, on and on. The monsters now realize that they can pile lies far faster than decent people can dig the truth out. No one cares about your facts, Judge. That America is in the ICU and not expected to make it.
3
If we want to get rid of these lying newscasters like Hannity who have no credibility we must VOTE for representatives that tell the truth. We must view the candidates on television (faces rarely lie) and must read and be informed.
1
Hannity, Limbaugh and Dershowitz's unsubstantiated allegations against Mueller seem fairly clearly to be defamation of character, or slander. Isn't this a breach of civil law and grounds for a suit? And why, when these probable, widely damaging falsehoods are reported, is there never any mention of the people who pay these scoundrels for their lies - the Murdochs? Weren't they supposedly cleaning house after the sexual abuse scandals of Ailes and O'Reilly? Rupert and sons are just as guilty of poisoning the political atmosphere as the blowhards on whom they shower millions to keep the ratings up. Let's hold them accountable.
1
Well, obviously, the fact the Mueller WASN'T mentioned just PROVES he was involved!
There will be no acknowledgement that these accusers are beating a dead horse. Where it involves Trump, there are no limitations. Just being Hannity and Limbaugh makes their allegations suspect.
This raises "disgusting" to a higher level.
3
When is there EVER proof of charges by the right wing?
1
A claim by Trump and Associates that has no factual basis. How can that be, when Trump has access to more information than anyone else? Perhaps it is because he is a habitual liar. Perhaps it is because he ha so much to hide that he constantly has to create smoke screens to deflect attention away from his many scandals. It is unfortunate that some people choose to be ignorant of Trump's obviously dangerous, ego-driven mind.
1
It seems we have as much evidence that Robert Mueller conspired with Whitey Bulger as we do that Donald Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin.
That having been said, Mueller was the acting United States Attorney for the Boston office during part of the time that the office was opposing the release of men they knew to be innocent. We know that both his predecessor and his successor in writing opposed the release of these men. While offering absolutely no support for Sean Hannity's slimy "journalism," it does seem fair to question Mr. Mueller's role in the affair in a more responsible manner.
1
President Trump, Sean Hannity, Rush Lmbaugh and this cadre of Trump minions claim there is a “deep state” out to destroy our contry, and implying that only they and Trump can protect us. In fact, these very people are in fact the “deep state”, who are out to destroy our democracy and create a facist government that they can control with their lies, slander, money laundering, greed, vanity and corruption.
Hopefully they will be held accountable and prosecuted before it is too late.
1
Talk show sensationalism:
“ Mr. Dershowitz asserted that Mr. 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.”
Yet when Mr. Dershowitz had allegations against him involving a sex scandal. He told the Wall Street Journal, “that he intends to initiate disbarment proceedings against the attorneys representing the alleged victims for failing to diligently investigate the women’s claims. Even if the allegations against Dershowitz are false, though, it’s not clear that the lawyers representing the women are either incompetent or malicious."
3
Do facts matter to the Republican base? Do they really care about wrongfully locked up Americans as they call for the wrongful imprisonment of their perceived political rivals like Hillary and Mueller! They support a man who STILL viciously wants the state to murder or lynch five innocent young men.
These are the same people who believe without question and without evidence falsehoods, conspiracies and lies while scorning evidence and facts staring them in the face.
Republican-Russian interference and conspiracy with the trump cover up - helped along by the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh, Mercer, et al. Why?
Republican obstruction of justice, obstruction of truth and facts, obstruction of voting, obstruction of basic decency. The fact is 80% of Republicans support the trump - need I say more about the GOP?
These are the same people who excoriate, persecute, try to "take down" and threaten to wrongfully lock up Hillary for mismanagement of her e-mails while their leader insults and denigrates most Americans, insults their intelligence daily with outlandish lies, and doing all he can to defend and protect his Russian financiers - even providing actual Top Secret information to them in the Oval Office (Hillary never did that).
These are the same "Christians" who sold their souls to the trump, praying he succeeds in dismantling all that makes America great, including dismantling true Christian values - even posing in the Oval Office with their new messiah to reinforce this.
2
I subscribe to the tin-pot dictator theory to explain the constant lying that comes from this White House and its co-conspiritors, but I hope the Democratic candidates will not take the bait to wrestle in the sewer but instead will just focus on the economy and maintenance of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for those who need them.
1
Limbaugh and Hannity? (And Dershowitz?) Practiced liars. Ready liars. Cheerleaders for hatred ... a profitable occupation.
And it could get worse.
Jordan Peele, the comedian and director, has just posted a brief video that shows President Obama delivering a nonsensical and slightly crude public service announcement. It’s convincing. There’s Obama, on the screen, speaking. But it’s a trick, concocted of “deep fake” technology, and Peele, behind the scenes, is saying all the words.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2018/4/18/17252410...
We are drowning in Far Right and Russian bot “fake news,” and these deceptions are going to get worse, more effective, as technology improves. How to resist it? Millions of American voters must read reliable sources of news and judge these sources critically.
That ain’t gonna happen soon.
I enjoyed watching The Matrix and reading Animal Farm, but I don’t want to LIVE there.
Am scared.
3
There is some quote that lies have no power until the receivers of the lies give such lies power. And that is our national problem in this country.
So, what is surprising is that despite all Trump's incompetence, shenanigans, chaos, and lies, Fox News is the most-watched cable news channel in primetime: 2.5 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (1.9 million) and CNN (985K). And Hannity, one of Fox's biggest liars, is the Fox super star in 2018.
Why would Americans trying to find out the news of the day, choose to watch propaganda and lies? If the truth shall set us free, these Fox viewers have chosen to be in chains. I would love to know why.
On the bright side:
1. If you add the viewership for the more liberal MSNBC & CNN (2.9 m), it is higher than that for Fox (2.5 m).
2. Mostly older people watch Fox. The coveted 18-54 year old age group is evenly split in its viewership of the 3 cable news channels.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/373814/cable-news-network-viewership...
So with generational replacement, as the younger generation takes over, we can only hope that the right-wing Reagan-Trump era and its junk ideology and cruel politics will be considered little but a black mark in our history--if we survive.
1
With such ease this puny man masquerading as a President calls noted government officials parts of crime families. He has no sense of shame, no shred of decency, remaining an embarrassing outrage to all those with sense.
1
Of course, we now have confirmation that Mr. Hannity is the administration's Propaganda Minister, so what do the facts have to do with his broadcasts?
2
If you can't win honestly, Cheat. It's worked for the GOP my entire adult life.
2
Jees...do we see a pattern here?
The Republican party nominated and continues to support a inveterate liar, large percentages of the party's members (Fox News and El Rushbo listeners, no doubt...) firmly believe all sort of things that are untrue if not patently false, and a cascade of unproven accusations -- well, lies -- smearing a dedicated patriot and war hero flows from right wing cheerleaders who all managed to avoid military service during Vietnam.
The Republican party is a rotting carcass.
1
Let's not sugarcoat this: Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and the others are not "simply wrong,"- they are lying in order to wreck the Mueller investigation and protect Donald Trump. Period.
667
Mueller, as Director of the FBI, concealed evidence that the FBI had suborned perjury and withheld exculpatory evidence from state prosecutors. The offenses took place before he became director, but when Whitey was ultimately captured and the truth came out, the FBI under Mueller did not take any action to exonerate and in fact were the opposition to the lawsuit for damages.
Let's not sugarcoat the facts. When Mueller was Director of the FBI, his actions attempted to conceal FBI wrongdoing from the public. Now, as special prosecutor, he has revealed evidence of wrongdoing by associates of Trump, and indicted them, that have nothing to do with Russian meddling but has not indicted any of the Obama/Hillary supporters that has been exposed for the same offenses.
He has found no evidence of collusion with the Russians, but has discovered that Facebook violated the privacy of their users, and made money doing so.
Mueller is concealing corrupt actions of FBI corruption.
I guess you didn't read Judge Gertners piece?
1
Are they lying about the botched anthrax investigation and the slap on the wrist that Sandy Berger got for egregious violations involving stolen Clinton documents ?
Character assassination is sop for this crowd. And while Itis admirable for judge gertner to set the record straight and expose their lies, it won't matter.
2
So when have outright lies stopped Hannity before? He knows his followers don't care.
2
We should never let the truth get between Sean Hannity's and Rush Limbaugh's mouths and the airwaves, especially in defense of that ultimate truth-teller, Trump.
2
Thank you Nancy Gertner, I'm dumbfounded by Alan Dershowitz's behavior on this. The Boston FBI had many corrupt agents and leaders but to try to smear the special prosecutor when YOU KNOW the connection is not there, he's become an ultra right wing hack.
4
None of these media people ever produce evidence of their proclamations. They say things in convincing, confident fashion so that they will be believed by those who listen only to what they want to hear, after years of brainwashing by the same people. Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. continue to attack any threat to Trump. Why? Because they supported Trump and they cannot afford to be proven foolish or wrong and risk losing their shows.
And they have the gall to attack all other media outlets as crooked members of the Deep State. They are the true Deplorables.
1
Mueller should sue these hucksters for defamation.
3
I get so angry at the campaign by the President and the Fox News group to discredit Mueller and the lack of truth on their part. They started the conspiracy stuff from the beginning. What is he, Trump, so afraid of? If you are innocent you don't act like this.
4
All the comments here are missing the major point: Trump, Hannity, and Fox News are a reflection of the power of disinformation, which nearly half the voters in the preceding Presidential Election voted for. What has generated this power, and what does a democratic society do about it? I don't know. The 'Information Age' is bult on communications technologies that allow most amyone anywhere to project a multi-media message to whoever will listen, instantly, internationally. The fact that this could be abused caught on slowly. More germane is the fact that so many are trying that the consumer HAS to filter out the vast majority of their information options: not nearly time enough in the day to see a real cross-section. So, Fox News has perfected a PSYCHOLOGICAL balance of facts, pictures, opinions and assertions that meet a human need: a consistent, believable narrative the corroborates their listeners sense of both their own validity and the unambiguous interpretation of who's the enemy.
Wish I knew some answers. My guess though is we'd be best served by:
1. re-tool elections so that every one votes and they all count (electroral college, districts OUT)
2. Re-tool electioneering so that deep pockets don't run everything
3. Get active locally and cultivate the ability the talk in person with ALL the folks in your immediate area: your opinion of a hispanic worker, a redneck journeyman, and a black teen with pants falling low simply gets more nuanced by sharing an hour.
4
Why even give credence to individuals like Hannity, or hack media outfits like Fox News at all?
Present substantiated, undeniably irrefutable evidence portraying them as the lying sorts they are. Then outline what is the truth, put it out there and let the chips fall where they may.
This Administration's base supporters are incurious, biased, and totally self-centered and will never alter their thinking. So we must stop wasting our time trying to convince them otherwise, accept the notion that some 35+ percent of our nation fall in line with the Administration's lies, exaggerations, and 'spins', then just stand true to telling the irrefutable truth at every turn.
History has everything in its crosshairs and will rule the day. And thus, so will the truth. We will survive this.
And a good start, each of us getting to the polls in 2018 and 2020. Do the math, 65% beats 35% everytime.
2
Sadly, the facts of the case won't matter. This will become a meme for the alt-right, who will simply repeat it as fact.
Eventually, we'll be dedicating equal resources to "both sides" of this "debate," and all facts like these will turn into nothing more than some guy's opinion.
1
I see former liberal pet Alan Dershowitz, no fan of Trump, is now persona non grata because he dares speak the constitutional truth that the President can fire anyone who works for him, directly and indirectly (and that includes special counsel), without it being obstruction of justice.
Reminds me of the treatment of Comey: first hero, then bum who should have been fired by Obama, and now a hero again, although, to use the liberal euphemism, "flawed".
Could folks at least be less transparent in their various hypocrisies, a little more nuanced (to use a favorite liberal word)?
As for Hannity, let him defend himself against the statements in this article. Way too many people here are saying no way, Hannity won't do that, he is a liar and will never own up. Really? What are they afraid of?
1
the problem with mueller's investigation is that it does not go far enough, there is even more substantial cause for adding the democrats to the mix. Finding dirt on trump should not be difficult if the search covers all his pre-presidential business activities and his campaign, but the same is true of the demos, and the causes more immediate...the classified info question alone warrants hard scrutiny (having lived within the "top secret" culture for several years), it is impossible to grasp the carelessness, or worse, in mrs clinton's handling of her responsibilties. For this to happen, it says here, Mueller has to go, His standing in the Boston FBI office makes "complicit" easy, the notion that the criminal informant program was "strictly confidential" passes absurd considering the frequency of leaks, internal and external, including so many from mueller's present shop. (could be that pomeo's trip to north korea is the only secret that made it through the swamp without a leak). Judge Gertner makes an articulate effort but, as she knows the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence...ask james comey about the exercise of authority by bosses.
Hannity has clear conflict-of-interest in acting in any sort of journalistic capacity, given reported connection with Cohen and possibly the Trump organization. Failure to 'recuse' himself suggests there is more than reportorial skin in the game.
3
Hannity et al are part of an enterprise that postures itself as an alternative to the "biased" Mainstream media. While there's always a place for dissent from the majority viewpoint, Fox has left honesty and journalistic ethics lying along the roadside.
Dancing with great agility from subject to subject (and lie to lie), their viewers are left with the kernel of their messages without substantiation and move on. If challenged by some opposing force, they simply repeat the original message over and over again, usually dressed up with a sprinkling of retired Lt. Colonels.
In all that, they've simply modeled themselves after the very successful GOP "messaging system" that's dogged our national politics for decades. Toss out a bone and see if anyone grabs it. If someone does, throw out more of the same with embellishments usually having little to do with the original bone. If an all-out dogfight ensues, step back and proclaim innocence.
It works for "them", while the rest of us look on in amazement.
2
These actions appear to be deliberate attempts to defame Mr. Mueller; he should sue them! These folks have no special authorization to spew unsupported stories without the potential of justice being had.
3
Thank you Judge Gertner for your excellent article. Aren't there any laws which prohibit licensed TV stations from broadcasting material which is continually false?
4
It may feel unseemly to you, your honor, but you MUST do more to publicize this information than an op-ed piece in the Times. For too long the "good guys" have been "coming to a gunfight with a knife", and the rules have changed. Please, PLEASE go on the news talk shows and get this information to a broader audience. Our citizens need to know this!
2
Judge Gertner:
Your column seems to imply that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh will stop this smear because of facts. Surely you know better. Neither of these entertainer care one whit about facts.
4
More people should sue when they are slandered by the "Alternative Fact People." It should be easy to show that someone has been threatened and damaged by simply looking at the comments from the supporters of these people.
Words have power. When words are sold cheaply for money, then perhaps the costs need to go up.
They spread the lies for money. Hit them where it hurts.
Need money to sue? Many of us would contribute.
1
Hannity has a brand to protect. If it profitable , he will speak it . Opinion as commodity. The most important 5 words on commercial TV : WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK. Then the real program starts. Hannity is just filler. Sadly , in our culture , a poisonous one.
1
and...it is about impossible to point the lies out to a Trump follower. Exercise in futility that will just get your blood pressure up! What do you do with that?
3
Hannity has no credibility. If you look at a listing for him on Wikipedia, it lists at least a dozen conspiracy theories that he’s put forward as facts. Some, like birtherism, seem to be coordinated with Donald Trump. Hannity has become the minister of propoganda in the trump administration.
4
Trump's campaign style, in line with the rest of the Republicans and their media supporters, simply has no regard for the truth. Their base doesn't seem to care.
2
The particular Mueller issue discussed in this article aside, I bet most people had no clue this happened, and Ms. Gertner is doing us a service.
This is supposed to make us trust the FBI, the self-professed "premier law-enforcement agency in the world", and people like Mr. Comey?
What law?
1
Why don't the people who listen to Hannity and Limbaugh expect them to state what their evidence is?
1
One wonders how far President Trump, FOX and the GOP members of the Senate and House who are colluding to defame Robert Mueller and Hillary Clinton can go before lawyers decide to file slander and libel suits against them? Trump, in particular, has made consistent reckless allegations with no proof that Hillary broke laws and should be put in jail. Is it time for Hillary and others who have been maligned to step up and take these matters to court? That would allow Trump, Fox, and the GOP collusion gang to defend their claims and convince us all that they are true. And it they can't, they should be fined or go to jail for slander, libel or both. Hillary, Mueller and others maligned by these apparent collusion campaigns owe it to America to stand up for themselves and have truth come out. After all, we are investigating potential conspiracy between Russian and US officials to taint a US presidential election.
2
I think this is a really great op-ed. Thank you for writing it.
3
"Evidence? We don't need no stinking evidence."
2
If Mueller was in charge, but didn't know, isn't that a problem? Respondeat superior? Did he fail to know what he should, or is this just another slick case of the use of plausible deniability and fall guys to protect bosses and institutions?
Hannity is as good at making things up as is Trump. He hopes getting rid of Mueller will save him, Cohen and the President. Unlikely. The truth always comes forth.
3
Just before going to bed, we argued briefly last night about whether Hannity had an obligation to tell the truth, as other journalists do. My boyfriend argued that because Hannity is not technically a journalist, but merely a "pundit," that he is not obliged to disclose conflicts of interest or even tell the truth, because everything that he says on his show is not technically "news," but "entertainment."
I say that is splitting hairs. Fox claims to be a news station. It calls itself Fox News. Its so-called commenters ought to be held to the same standards of journalism that other journalists and news organizations are obliged to maintain.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine! When I was a kid, the country didn't have these arguments about what was true or not, because everyone was obliged to stick to the truth, and when something was reported on the national news, you could depend upon the veracity of the reports. Nobody wondered whether or not the owners of a TV station were trying to promote their own political agendas, because they were not permitted to do so!
Nowadays, conservative families such as the Murdochs, the Mercers, and the Sinclairs have taken advantage of the libertarian mantra of "no rules, no regulations" to spread malicious lies that benefit themselves, in order to make themselves richer. Their greed is destroying our republic, inch by inch.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine! Let them spout their nonsense, but force them to tell the truth alongside of it!
4
Trump's base will believe anything said on FOX because it supports their already held ideas. They and Trump of course need some pretense to fire Mueller or at least find a reason not to credit Mueller's coming report. Fake news without a shred of evidence to discredit Mueller's painstakingly obtained facts. Trump has his henchman and because they appear on TV some believe them just as they believed Trump's 'reality' TV fiasco.
3
While I will not speak to the particular events of the four men, I was neither there and we have not yet heard back from any of the current commentators whose perspectives you refute, it seems somewhat narrow and odd that this surfaces now. Mr. Mueller and quite a few others are implicated in the Russian purchase of US uranium scandal. Of course, nothing is printed here, let alone prominently printed, about the latest significant development.
2
Mr. Mueller needs no help in smearing himself. He lied to congress to get us into a needless war that killed and displaced millions of innocent people:
"Although Iran remains a significant concern for its continued financial and logistical support of terrorism, Iraq has moved to the top of my list. As we previously briefed this Committee, Iraq's WMD program poses a clear threat to our national security, a threat that will certainly increase in the event of future military action against Iraq. Baghdad has the capability and, we presume, the will to use biological, chemical, or radiological weapons against US domestic targets in the event of a US invasion."
https://fas.org/irp/congress/2003_hr/021103mueller.html
That alone shows who he is.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
2
I mean, talk about "no evidence"...
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
Question: what do the great barrier reefs in Australia and our US democracy have in common?
Both are becoming extinct by the effects of HOT AIR.
4
What good is the right to free speech if it can't be used to smear those you don't like with. It's the cornerstone that's what really makes America great, We should celebrate it every day we wake.
Thank you for this article. The central problem though, is that you are using logic and reasoning to make your point. You are also assuming that the truth matters. I think it does. But Hannity, Trump et al do not, and neither do their supporters. All they care about is stirring up their rabid mob, and it's much easier to do that with lies.
3
This is a Swift Boat move by the right: take a bona fide hero, who has served his country with distinction, and attempt to smear his good name, a la Kerry and McCain.
2
Sean Hannity, the reality tv pundit, smearing Mueller is a classic example of the danger of the fake news media,a/k/a Fox News, tyrannical influence on the citizenry. The disinformation spread by one of Hair Orange Furor's most trusted advisers and confidantes would not be tolerated by any other journalistic enterprise. Fox News ,Rupert Murdoch's vanity media company, ignores all the norms,ethics and objectivity of what should be a basic requirement for a media enterprise that holds itself out as a "News " organization. Hannity is no more a journalist than Michael Cohen is a lawyer. But without Hannity being forthright with his viewers, they are hoodwinked into believing what they hear.
2
So we should gather, from the mounting evidence, compiled and dispensed, no less, than by his own broadcasts (mouth), that Sean Hannity's relationship with Cohen was to be the mouthpiece for Trump in delegitimizing the Mueller investigation - and or any other "obstacles" for Trump, as they came up, that Hannity could use his bully pulpit for.
If the speculation above is true, is that not a crime of some kind? Especially since it could perhaps constitute obstruction of justice?
1
Clearing up misinformation about Mueller?
Now you'll never be invited on Fox News.
These pesky facts might confuse viewers.
There is something rapacious at the heart of all this. Fox will eventually destroy itself.
1
The Judge's comments are entitled to great deference. But I don't think Harry Truman ("The buck stops here") would agree. IF Muller was at the top of the prosecutorial food chain, he is responsible for his prosecutors.
1
Right wing media is not held to account; neither is trump, lies flourish. The only recourse is legal including laws protecting one's reputation, FCC rules protecting the airwaves from outright lies broadcast as news and voting. Internet giants, FB, Twitter, Google must be regulated as Public Utilities. There is much to be done to make obvious to the public what is factually true and what is not.
Thank you Judge for dispassionate and factual discourse.
11
Judge Gertner's fact-based and convincing article may be read by tens, or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people. It may be mentioned in or by a handful of other media, eventually reaching an audience that may number a million or two. Its impact will largely be confined to that relatively small segment of the population and will also be temporally limited, fading quickly after 24 - 48 hours.
On the other hand, Hannity has 3.3 million television viewers and millions more radio listeners. Add Carlson, Limbaugh, Ingraham, Coulter, etc into the mix and the audience swells to hundreds of millions that each day are treated to virtually fact-free "news" about the Mueller Crime Family.
Thanks to Fox, Sinclair, Breitbart and rest of the agenda-driven media outlets, facts now exist as fleeting ephemera and truth has been rendered relative.
Anyone still think "Idiocracy" is just a dystopian sci-fi movie?
46
Does anyone still think that "Objectivism" and Ayn Rand should have been elevated above the works of actual academics who foresaw the dangers of Nihilism?
I guess we'll just call that one a mulligan.
1
No. Idiocracy is a documentary from far in the future sent to us as a warning.
Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are as much a threat to our democratic republic as Russian hackers. It staggers me that these men trade in pernicious lies to a deluded base and suffer no consequences. And all under the guise of patriotism, no less.
Of course, the First Amendment gives them the right to say what they wish; and I have the right to not listen to them.
BUT - the airwaves belong to the public. The Reagan administration did our country a profound disservice when it repealed the "Fairness Doctrine" - the rule that required equal time for political viewpoints over the airwaves.
The argument was that the plethora of information sources, at that time only cable channels (!), made it an antiquated rule for a simpler time.
Out it went and in a few short years, Rush Limbaugh was polluting the airwaves. Then came the others. Now Fox News is nothing but right wing propaganda, and it's beyond partisan. It's out and out lying.
This steady drumbeat of lies, attempting to derail a legitimate investigation of extreme importance, absolutely sickens me. How in the hell is it patriotic?
How many Fox viewers and Limbaugh listeners will read this piece? Very few to none. Some of the people will be fooled all of the time.
For the rest of us, and for our country's sake, I pray it's a solid majority, our only recourse is to speak the truth, and exercise our rights in the voting booth.
35
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
-Samuel Johnson