We've dealt with jury tampering, wiretapping, a defendant that was literally gagged, and a judge who's been handing down rulings from the bench that would be considered wrong in Honduras, so I'm a little less interested in the law than I was when this trial began.
William Kunstler
Do you know why you're on trial here?
Abbie Hoffman
We carried certain ideas across state lines. Not machine guns or drugs or little girls. Ideas. When we crossed from New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Illinois, we had certain ideas. And for that, we were gassed, beaten, arrested, and put on trial.
Abbie Hoffman
In 1861, Lincoln said in his inaugural address: 'When the people shall grow weary of their constitutional right to amend their government, they shall exert their revolutionary right to dismember and overthrow that government.' And if Lincoln had given that speech in Lincoln Park last summer, he'd be put on trial with the rest of us.
William Kunstler
So, how do you overthrow or dismember, as you say, your government peacefully?
Abbie Hoffman
In this country, we do it every four years.
William Kunstler
Of course, because you took that black guy and you made him a sympathetic character.
Mr. Kunstler, I have lived a a very long time, sir, and you're the first person ever to suggest that I have discriminated against a black man!
Leonard Weinglass
Then let the record show that I am the second.
William Kunstler
Maybe you don't want to call it the Conspiracy Office.
They understand the irony, and appreciate the humor.
William Kunstler
I wouldn't count on it.
Most people are smart, Bill.
William Kunstler
Well, if you believe that, you'll get your heart broken every day of your life.
You've all got the same father, right? 'Cut your hair, don't be a ****, respect authority, respect America - respect me.' Your life, it's a '****-you' to your father, right? A little?
Tom Hayden
Maybe.
Maybe. And you can see how that's different from a rope on a tree?
Tom Hayden
Yeah.
Yeah. He was shot in the shoulder first. You can't aim a gun if you've been shot in the shoulder, you can't squeeze the trigger. Second shot was in his head. Fred was executed. Anything else?
William Kunstler
No.
[Bobby leaves the room without another word]
I'm in private practice now, and if John Mitchell wants to cut me in half, he can and he will.
Tom Hayden
You have to find some... Sir, you have to find some courage now.
Find some courage? Yeah.
Tom Hayden
Yes. You have to find some courage, and...
Leonard Weinglass
Tom.
That's what those two men came to tell me, that if John Mitchell wants to cut me in half, he can and he will. So I wanted them in the room when I said 'When do you want me in court?'
Mr. Clark?
William Kunstler
I'm sorry?
Swear me in, Bill.
It is against the law for you to testify, Ramsey. It is as simple as that.
It's General Clark. And arrest me or shut the **** up. [turns to Hayden] Found some.
Abbie Hoffman
This is a political trial—that was already decided for us. Ignoring that reality is just weird to me.
William Kunstler
There are civil trials, and there are criminal trials. There's no such thing as a political trial.
Abbie Hoffman
Okay...
