Elisabeth Haub School of Law News

“This is the nightmare scenario that to millions of Americans is unfathomable but realistically possible,” Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon. “It is also the scenario that millions of Americans look forward to with glee and the opportunity for retribution against the enemies of Trump.” Ultimately, the Supreme Court will “need to step up and prevent Trump’s plot to abuse his power,” Gershman said. Invoking the insurrection act and the ex-president’s plan to punish critics is “obviously unconstitutional.”

Professor Bennett Gershman speaks with ABC Australia regarding Trump’s trial.

This is a “significant win” for a prosecutor in a large conspiracy case, who can get lower-level co-defendants to plead guilty and cooperate by offering up information and testimony against higher-level defendants, like Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and several others, Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon. “She is continuing to build momentum,” Gershman said. “Several other co-defendants, seeing the others plead guilty and the far riskier consequences of not pleading and facing trial will also take pleas and cooperate. The D.A.’s strategy is working almost to perfection.”

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Professor Nicholas Robinson provides insights to Eurasia Review about how the recognition of human rights to environmental issues can galvanize action and collaboration towards realization of sustainable development goals.

Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer, a law professor at Pace University, said there is a “gray area” between public officials being able to block people and stop harassment and the rights of others to view online posts. She said the legal protection social media companies enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which allows the companies to be immune from certain lawsuits over content posted by third parties, should be amended to prevent any online harassment. “If public officials want to stop allowing harassing information, I think they must address it by amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is a difficult, if not impossible task,” Ms. Tenzer said. “I also think as a mother, and a social media scholar, that publishing anti-hate rhetoric or posts that teach others to kill should never be permitted. But as long as section 230 exists, I think it is hard to hold social media companies accountable.”

Such arguments are “nonsensical,” Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon. “Every person, including Trump, has the right to engage in ‘forceful political advocacy,’” he said. “But Trump and his co-conspirators went far beyond advocacy. Trump and his cohorts engaged in a criminal conspiracy to subvert the results of a lawful election by illegal means. To endorse this argument would be to sanction any action taken under the guise of political advocacy, including violence and even political assassination.”

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Professor Bennett Gershman speaks with Salon about how former Trump lawyers could face “disbarment” and “possibly be jailed” over court stunts.

“Trump’s lawyers are perilously close to being sanctioned once again and more heavily by Judge Engoron for their misconduct,” Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon. “They are behaving in manifest bad faith by intentionally delaying and obstructing the proceedings and deliberately creating a spectacle to promote Trump's fundraising. Lawyers in any legal proceeding foresee an appeal if they lose and try to make a complete and proper record for appellate review.”