Accountability and Truth: A Conversation w/ the Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman

Good Law | Bad Law

Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by former Congresswoman, the Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, now of Herrick Feinstein LLP, to discuss last week’s tragic insurrection at the Capitol and the unfolding aftermath, the resulting second impeachment of President Trump, and Congresswoman Holtzman’s concerns about our country’s future and the rule of law, truth, and democracy.

Today, Aaron and Congresswoman Holtzman have a vital conversation about what should happen next in our country. Who needs to be held accountable? Is the President criminally responsible? What about Members of Congress who enabled and contributed to the insurrection? How do we unify the American people? Congresswoman Holtzman and Aaron have a crucial discussion about unity and division, the damage done to American democracy, the mythology of President Trump and Trumpism, the media’s role in perpetuating falsehoods of fraud in the 2020 election, peace and war, as well as the violent attacks on Capitol Hill last Wednesday, Trump’s galvanizing actions thereof and therein, and how exactly we as a country move forward and “defang” these insurrectionist movements. Congresswoman Holtzman talks about her personal concerns about attending the upcoming inauguration of President-Elect Biden as D.C. and state capitols all over the country prepare to handle mounting threats of violence and her disappointment in how far we as a country have fallen. Aaron and Congresswoman Holtzman compare and contrast Trump and Nixon, their actions and handling of criminal activities, and the aftermath of Watergate. Throughout the conversation, comparisons of our current state are made to denazification and that of the mob. What will the standards be? How will the truth be established? And perhaps most importantly, how best should we proceed as a society to restore respect, trust, and the rule of law?

At 31, Ms. Holtzman was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in 1972. She graduated from Harvard Law School and holds admissions in the state of New York; the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit; the U.S. District Court, Eastern District, New York; and the U.S. District Court, Southern District, New York. After more than 22 years in government, including 20 as an elected official, the Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, now 79, handles government relations at the federal, state, and local levels as well as litigation in her position at Herrick.

During her four terms as a U.S. Congresswoman, she captured national attention for her role on the House Judiciary Committee where she voted to impeach President Richard Nixon and for her questioning of President Ford about the Nixon pardon; chaired the Immigration and Refugees Subcommittee (where she co-authored the Refugee Act of 1980 with Senator Ted Kennedy); and wrote many laws, including extending the deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment and the Rape Privacy Act. She was the first member of Congress to expose the U.S. government’s inaction on Nazi war criminals living in America and spearheaded the effort to bring them to justice. Congresswoman Holtzman subsequently became the first woman elected District Attorney in New York City, serving eight years as DA of King County (Brooklyn); she was also the first and only woman to be elected Comptroller of New York City.

In 2014, Congresswoman Holtzman was appointed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to its Advisory committee. She later resigned from that position to protest the policy of separating parents and children at the southwest border. Previously, Congresswoman Holtzman was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Nazi and Japanese Imperial War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group, which oversaw the declassification of more than eight million pages of secret Nazi war crimes files held by the U.S. government.

Congresswoman Holtzman has written several books, including the 2018 book, The Case For Impeaching Trump, and many articles. She regularly appears as a commentator on television and has been featured in several movies, including Charles Ferguson’s “Watergate,” Robert Redford’s documentary “All the President’s Men Revisited,” and the Academy Award-winning documentaries, “Hôtel Terminus” about Gestapo Chief Klaus Barbie an “Women-for America, for the World,” about the nuclear disarmament. Congresswoman Holtzman has also received many honors and four honorary degrees for her significant contributions to American politics.

Listen now!

To learn more about Congresswoman Holtzman, please click here and/or here.

To learn more about Congresswoman Holtzman’s 2018 book, The Case For Impeaching Trump, please click here.

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guest: Hon. Elizabeth Holtzman

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