Mehdi Hasan’s Demand for Prosecutions

 

Here is Mehdi Hasan. He starts with: “I am only half joking when … say[ing] this,” and then he goes on to advocate that “the next Democratic President should run on a plan to prosecute Elon Musk.” <https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2008796401342566523> (at 00:45ff). But he does not identify even any one crime. What does it mean to advocate a prosecution when you fail to identify any crime? What does he mean by a “plan”? Does it mean that the President should direct the AG and DOJ in regard to a particular prosecution against a named individual? That is what some call the unitary executive—something usually opposed by liberals in U.S. academia. 

I should point out that Hasan’s aspiration regarding a future Musk prosecution is hardly a new thing. It is also the ambition of Ireland’s Fintan O’Toole and other elite editorialists in Europe. See, e.g., Seth Barrett Tillman, Letter to the Editor, ‘Elon Musk and Free Speech,’ Irish Times, Aug. 15, 2024, 11, 2024 WLNR 13791233, <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2024/08/tillman-on-todays-speech-monitors.html>, <https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/08/15/elon-musk-and-free-speech/>, <ProQuest>. Like Hasan, they too propose future Musk prosecutions, and like Hasan, they do not bother to identify any actual crimes. It is not even “good” lawfare—it is just free-flowing hatred and jealousy.

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Mehdi Hasan’s Demand for Prosecutions,’ New Reform Club (Jan. 7, 2026, 3:51 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2026/01/mehdi-hasans-demand-for-prosecutions.html>;