A Federal Crime: Robertson's Call for Assassination

John W. Dean, former counsel to Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, makes the case that Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Hugo Chavez was a federal crime.

Was Pat Robertson's Call for Assassination of a Foreign Leader a Crime?

From the moment I heard Robertson's remark, on the radio, I thought of the federal criminal statutes prohibiting such threats. Do they apply?

For me, the answer is yes. Indeed, had these comments been made by a Dan Rather, a Bill Moyers, or Jesse Jackson, it is not difficult to imagine some conservative prosecutor taking a passing look at these laws - as, say, Pat Robertson might read them - and saying, "Let's prosecute."

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