Andrew Weissmann argues for new law to hold political liars like US president accountable for harming democracy

Politicians must be held accountable if their lies damage democracy, according to a former US federal prosecutor and FBI general counsel who was pursued by Donald Trump.

The US must be “as creative as possible” and introduce sweeping structural reforms if it escapes its current “mess”, said Andrew Weissmann, laying out a proposal for a legislative crackdown on election deceit.

“Lying can be held to account,” argued Weissmann, a senior figure in former FBI director Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and Trump’s links to Moscow.

    • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      Indeed. And how do you make that quantitative? Because otherwise, such laws will be weaponized by the hubris factory.

      “Biden won the election.”

      “Lie! Arrest that man! We’ve all seen the truth in the media!”