Political Quotes

“Mr. Chief Justice, I send a question to the desk. The CHIEF JUSTICE. The question is addressed to counsel for the President: As a matter of law, does it matter if there was a quid pro quo? Is it true that quid pro quos are often used in foreign policy? Mr. Counsel DERSHOWITZ. Mr. Chief Justice, thank you very much for your question. Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the rolling-out of a peace plan by the President of the United States regarding the Israel- Palestine conflict, and I offered you a hypothetical the other day: What if a Democratic President were to be elected and Congress were to authorize much money to either Israel or the Palestinians and the Democratic President were to say to Israel ``No; I am going to withhold this money unless you stop all settlement growth'' or to the Palestinians ``I will withhold the money Congress authorized to you unless you stop paying terrorists, and the President said ``Quid pro quo. If you don't do it, you don't get the money. If you do it, you get the money''? There is no one in this Chamber who would regard that as in any way unlawful. The only thing that would make a quid pro quo unlawful is if the quo were in some way illegal. Now, we talked about motive.…”