Episode 4: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Guest: Gerald Lefcourt)

Episode 4: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Guest: Gerald Lefcourt)

Authors

Jonathan Hafetz

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Description

This episode examines The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, with an all-star cast, including Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Rylance, and Frank Langella. The film is based on the 1969 trial of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, and other anti-Vietnam War protestors prosecuted for conspiracy in connection with the mass protests —and brutal crackdown by police—at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (The eighth defendant, Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, was severed from the case after being bound and gagged in the courtroom on the judge’s order). Our guest is Gerald Lefcourt, who not only is a leading criminal defense attorney, but also was part of the original defense team at the trial and represented Abbie Hoffman for over two decades.


Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction

3:33 Meeting Abbie Hoffman

8:06 Nixon targets the Chicago 7 (then Chicago 8)

11:58 The defense team

13:25 The egregious treatment of Bobby Seale

22:45. Judge Hoffman: off his rocker

25:54 The genius of Abbie Hoffman and the art of political theater

30:36 David Dellinger and the MOBE

31:59 Abbie, Tom Hayden, and dueling strategies on the left

37:21 Abbie: “We have to steal the headlines”

41:22 Abbie takes on the CIA

43:50 Abbie and Jerry Rubin

46:04 The celebrity witnesses

48:08 What Aaron Sorkin missed

51:33 Abbie’s excellent tennis game

55:37 Losing battles and winning wars in political cases

59:53 The Chicago 7 trial’s relevance today

1:02:31 Abbie’s later career

1:07:09 Abbie’s final speech

Further Reading:

Hancock, Catherine, “Race and Disorder: The Chicago Eight Trial Judge and Prosecutors Meet the Constitution and Bobby Seale,” 96 Tul. L. Rev. 819 (2022)

Levine, Mark L. & Greenberg, Daniel eds., The Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript (2020)

Levenson, Laurie L., “Judicial Ethics: Lessons from the Chicago Eight Trial,” 50 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 879 (2019)

Linder, Douglas O. “The Chicago 8 Conspiracy Trial,” http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Account.html

Mailer, Norman, Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968)

Sims, David, “Aaron Sorkin’s New Film Is the Right Story for This Moment,” The Atlantic (Oct. 16, 2020), https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/10/trial-of-the-chicago-7-aaron-sorkin-netflix/616755/

Schultz, John, The Conspiracy Trial of the Chicago Seven (2020)

Stevens, Dana, “The Trial of the Chicago 7 Is Timely, a Little Sexist, and a Lot of Fun,” Slate, Oct. 14, 2020, https://slate.com/culture/2020/10/trial-chicago-7-review-aaron-sorkin-movie-netflix.html

Weiner, Jon, Conspiracy i

Publication Date

5-27-2023

Disciplines

Law

Episode 4: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Guest: Gerald Lefcourt)

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