Alan Dershowitz: "Extortion of Jeff Bezos was just extortion-ish."

[DetlefK]

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/alan-dershowitz-goes-flames-defending-national-enquirers-extortion-ish-threat-jeff-bezos/

“The First Amendment needs breathing room,” Dershowitz argued. “This is a fight between two media moguls. There was a negotiation. It was a tough negotiation. I’m certainly not here to defend the journalistic ethics of The National Enquirer, but the First Amendment doesn’t distinguish between The Washington Post, ABC News and The National Enquirer.

“You need to draw a line between what is extortion-ish and what is extortion consistent with the First Amendment,” he added.

...

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Dershowitz shot back. “I’m talking about the fact that we’re dealing with media here, and remember too that the alleged extortion occurred in a letter from a lawyer.”

“I have been practicing law for over 50 years and I have never seen an extortion come in the form of a lawyer,” the law professor added. “You don’t get extortion by mail.”

from video:

"Let's not get prosecutors investigating how journalists operate, because that endangers the freedoms under the 1st Amendment."

It was a tough negotiation, where one side demanded that the other side give a false statement to the public or else!
How could that possibly be extortion?

The demand was a letter from a lawyer!
How could that possibly be extortion?
Nobody has ever heard that somebody gets blackmailed by mail or by a lawyer!

[hlthe2b]

1. I hope Laurence Tribe (or Seth Abramson, J. Toobin. Neil Kayal or any REAL lawyer) addresses this

[dameatball]

2. This is gibberish-ish.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Oh come on... Dersh is up to his eyeballs with these crooks

What a weasel. The extortion is right there for all to see.

[marylandblue]

6. Pecker is probably blackmailing him too.

[marylandblue]

4. I guess when the consigliere threatens to break your legs

It' okay because it came from a lawyer and it's free speech-ish.

[Fuzzpope]

5. Translation: "stop picking on my friends!!"

[empedocles]

7. Legal opinion is actually pretty well split on this extortion issue.

Also on the PR side, Goliath Bezos Amazon with unlimited resources/subsidies [private detectives/operatives, plants, etc.,] on this issue, - are not overwhelmingly sympathetic.

[marble falls]

9. All legal opinions and actions start out "pretty equal". At least, thats the theory, right?

[PSPS]

10. LOL! Why, yes! Yes they do! LOL.

[marble falls]

8. Right here, it's in the law book, under "extortionish", next to "murderish"!

[2naSalit]

11. Two words...

Michael Cohen.

[Yosemito]

12. Weird argument

It’s not extortion because the lawyer was the one who extorted. By that logic all people have to do when they want to commit extortion is have a lawyer do it for them.

[Vinca]

13. Shouldn't he be holed up worrying about the Epstein plea deal investigation?

[DontBooVote]

14. Every single day (it seems) we have to see the trash from Dersh posted here.

Why is that?

He is NOBODY we should be taking seriously here.

[Gothmog]

15. According to the conservative legal types at the Volokh Conspiracy, Alan is wrong

Link to tweet