A pair of Harvard law professors are getting into it on Twitter over the Tuesday’s events at former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn‘s sentencing hearing in Washington, D.C.
Laurence Tribe and Alan Dershowitz are currently engaged in a back-and-forth on social media that may be worth prepping some popcorn for. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Law at Harvard, called out Harvard law professor emeritus Dershowitz on Twitter. In case you missed it, Judge Emmet Sullivan tore into Flynn on Tuesday before ultimately postponing sentencing.
Sullivan gave Flynn the opportunity to challenge the circumstances of the FBI interview that got him busted for lying. Flynn declined to do so and stuck with his guilty plea. Much chatter leading up to Tuesday centered on whether the FBI or Special Counsel Robert Mueller had basically set Flynn up, but Sullivan said in no uncertain terms that Flynn committed a “very serious” offense.
Tribe seized on this and praised Sullivan for putting to rest the idea that there was a conspiracy against Flynn.
“District Judge Emmet Sullivan conducted the sentencing hearing involving Michael Flynn in a way that honored the independent federal judiciary — and dishonored Flynn, @PressSec, @AlanDersh & the other pundits insisting that the FBI or Mueller went awry,” he said, @-ing Dershowitz.
Dershowitz wasn’t about to let this remark go unanswered, so he immediately slammed Sullivan for wrongly asking if Flynn had committed treason.
Sullivan did apologize for asking that question. The judge apparently got mixed up about some of the facts of the case and apologized after a brief recess.
“I felt terrible about that,” Sullivan said. “I’m not suggesting he committed treason.”
Sullivan’s comments were certainly independent, but Dershowitz is telling Tribe to pump the brakes on praise.
Do you really think Sullivan should be praised for falsely suggesting that Flynn may have committed treason and that he was an agent of a foreign government while serving as national security director? Even Sullivan admitted it was wrong.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) December 19, 2018
“Do you really think Sullivan should be praised for falsely suggesting that Flynn may have committed treason and that he was an agent of a foreign government while serving as national security director?” he asked. “Even Sullivan admitted it was wrong.”
It’s worth pointing out the Dershowitz did not address the primary claim, namely that his insistence that the FBI and Mueller did something untoward was way off base.
[Image via ABC screengrab]
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