Dersh Ball: The Art of Twisting and Dissembling

You must know this: Dershowitz is book guy; he’s not in the arena. He never tried by himself a criminal felony case to a 12 person jury as a prosecutor or even as a defendant. Who knows if he ever cross-examined anyone in front of a jury. He never as a prosecutor conducted a criminal investigation. Yet, he has little problem saying that in Massachusetts there was “massive corruption among law enforcement and political officials that enabled Whitey to continue in his murderous ways.” He offers no proof of this, in fact, except for him and his friend Howie Carr, no one ever said there was massive corruption.

Dershowitz goes on to say: “When Billy was the most powerful political figure in Boston, corruption permeated every aspect of public life, from the FBI, to federal prosecutors, to the state judiciary, to Beacon Hill, to building inspectors, to the State Police. Everyone — from governors, to justices of the state’s highest court — kowtowed to “The President,” which in Boston meant Billy Bulger. And everyone knew that messing with Billy was messing with Whitey. Even more important, everyone knew that messing with Whitey was messing with Billy.”

This is nonsense as we have seen. First of all, Billy was a state official. He had no control over the FBI or the federal prosecutors. What we do know of the federal prosecutors they were anxious to find corruption at the State House. They would indict three Speakers of the House of Representatives and several state senators. Not for any massive corruption but for select violation of federal laws such as income tax evasion and perjury about redistricting.

Dershowitz in his frenzy of hatred for Billy Bulger became apoplectic when he heard Dukakis, a pillar of integrity say about Billy: “There has never been any question about the integrity of the Senate since he has been president.” So too, Weld a former federal prosecutor said nary a bad word about Billy.

Dershowitz practically foaming at the mouth wrote: “Everyone in Boston politics knew that William Bulger was a crook and a protector of Whitey, yet he was kowtowed to by leading politicians such as Michael Dukakis and Bill Weld, who knew that if you didn’t pay homage to the godfather, you could not succeed as governor.” They too in Dershowitz’s world are corrupt.

Then to show his absurdity he wrote: “deals should be offered to the lower-ranking members of the organization, including Connolly and Whitey Bulger, in order to get to the top man, William Bulger.” 

We have seen how the State Police, the DEA, local district attorneys, local police departments like Boston and Quincy were continually after Whitey. He cannot point to one instance where anything that he alleges happened. Dershowitz’s broad calumnies are his stock in trade.

I want to show a clear example of how he twists facts. During the John Connolly Criminal trial an assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Chiel testified. I’ll set out what he said and what Dershowitz said he testifies to. I take his testimony from my book Don’t Embarrass the Family.

Chiel testified that he had been pestered by Connolly to go for lunch. He finally agreed and he brought along a DEA agent Gerald Franciosa. He said that as soon as he got into the car Connolly was driving Connolly turned to him and said “What’s going on with the 75 State Street Investigation?” He said he replied: “Gee, John, I don’t know. I’m not involved in it. I’m just doing the drug cases in the office.” He said Connolly replied: “The Senate President is a great man. This is crazy. I don’t know what they are doing over there.”

That was the testimony. It is basically Connolly asking Chiel what is happening, Chiel saying he does not know since he had nothing to do with it, and Connolly expressing his thoughts that Billy Bulger (the Senate President) is a good guy and he can’t understand why they’d be investigating him.

Here’s what Dershowitz makes this into: “According to an assistant U.S. Attorney who testified at Connolly’s trial, during the 75 State Street extortion investigation, Connolly improperly lobbied him to drop the scrutiny of this “special person.” Connolly also tried to milk the prosecutor for confidential information about the probe.”

Neither thing happened. The DEA agent would testify that nothing was said about Billy Bulger during their time together. Connolly told me they never were in a car since they were going to Joe Tecce’s which they walked to.

Dershowitz would add: “It turned out, moreover, that the Chief Federal Strike Force Prosecutor in charge of investigating Billy Bulger’s corruption happened to be Whitey’s handler, Jeremiah T. O’Sullivan.” Unless he is a total incompetent he should know that federal prosecutors do not handle informants. He also should have known that O’Sullivan was acting Boston U.S. attorney at the time and he appointed two top assistants to investigate Bulger.

Desrhowitz has been able to command the top newspapers in the country to use as vehicles for his diatribes. None have questioned Dershowitz’s character. Knowing of his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, perhaps they will better understand what type person he is.