Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald discusses how Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon cut the last vestiges of the rule of law in America; the “too big to jail” justice system where powerful people need not fear incarceration; turning the Nuremberg court’s opinion on “aggressive war” on its head, as the US continually attacks countries that don’t pose a threat and government officials never face war crimes tribunals; the world-record US prison population, comprised of drug offenders and regular people who can’t afford to replace their (usually incompetent) public defender; and how US presidents refrain from prosecuting previous administrations, with the expectation that their own crimes will also go unpunished.
MP3 here. (30:33)
Glenn Greenwald is the author of With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. He was a constitutional lawyer in New York City, first at the Manhattan firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and then at the litigation firm he founded, Greenwald, Christoph. Greenwald litigated numerous high-profile and significant constitutional cases in federal and state courts around the country, including multiple First Amendment challenges. He has a J.D. from New York University School of Law (1994) and a B.A. from George Washington University (1990). In October of 2005, Greenwald started a political and legal blog, Unclaimed Territory, which quickly became one of the most popular and highest-trafficked in the blogosphere.
Upon disclosure by the New York Times in December 2005 of President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program, Greenwald became one of the leading and most cited experts on that controversy. In early 2006, he broke a story on his blog regarding the NSA scandal that served as the basis for front-page articles in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, all of which credited his blog for the story. Several months later, Sen. Russ Feingold read from one of Greenwald’s posts during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Feingold’s resolution to censure the president for violating FISA. In 2008, Sen. Chris Dodd read from Greenwald’s Salon blog during floor debate over FISA. Greenwald’s blog was also cited as one of the sources for the comprehensive report issued by Rep. John Conyers titled “The Constitution in Crisis.” In 2006, he won the Koufax Award for best new blog.
Greenwald is the author of A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok and Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.
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