Imagine that a senior Hillary aide--not to mention Hillary herself--were indicted over the email scandal. In a million years, could you imagine John Heilemann asking what such person would have to do to prove his or her innocence? Neither could I. But on today's With All Due Respect, Heilemann asked a Florida criminal defense attorney [not Lewandowski's lawyer]: "What is the legal standard? What does Corey Lewandowski have to prove, to prove his innocence?"
Attorney Whitney Boan politely pointed out that under the Constitution, Lewandowski doesn't have to prove or disprove anything, and that to the contrary the burden is on the State of Florida to prove the charge "beyond a reasonable doubt." Heilemann was appropriately contrite, saying "you're right to call me on having gotten that thing backwards, and thank you for doing that." But the presumption of innocence is ninth-grade civics stuff. That Heilemann would have ever asked such a question in the first place suggests some serious bias.
Heilemann's bias was reflected in his breathless tone in the show's opening segment, where he darkly asserted that "just on the legal level," the situation was "problematic, huge." Heilemann even downplayed the constitutional protection involved: "you can have the presumption of innocence, but the truth is that we can't remember any campaign manager in the past being charged, let alone being guilty of, assault."
JOHN HEILEMANN: Our first guest tonight is Whitney Boan, a criminal defense attorney in Florida who's been following the battery charge case today against Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. She joing us now from Orlando. Whitney, hello. Let me just ask you, before we start talking about strategy, tactics, defense versus prosecution, just what is the legal standard? What does Corey Lewandowski have to prove to prove himself that he's innocent, given what we know at this moment?
WHITNEY DOAN: Well, pursuant to our Constitution, he doesn't have to prove or disprove anything. It'll actually be the burden of the State of Florida to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that each and every element of the offense of battery occurred and that he committed that offense. So he will not have any obligation to put on any evidence tending to prove or disprove anything. However, I would expect him and his lawyers to put on a defense to this and use several different approaches, that Donald Trump has kind of alluded to already.
JOHN HEILEMANN: You're right to call me on having gotten that thing backwards, and thank you for doing that. So what's the prosecutorial standards? What does the prosecution have to prove on the basis of that videotape?
