Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Edward KocheEdward Koche
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 617

which I've just indicated to you he's allowed to ask: “What is his reputation in the community for truth and veracity?” My response: “Excellent.” And it was, in the political community, with the people that I knew. He was a liked person. He was liked, which has nothing to do with whether or not he committed the crime.

Well, I was criticized in the papers for doing that, and liberal friends -- really not so liberal when you think about it: “How could you go down and testify for Brasco?” But my former partner Allen Schwartz, who had been an assistant district attorney in Hogan's office, and who knew Brasco when Brasco was an assistant district attorney in the Brooklyn DA's office, said to me, “Brasco's reputation was good.” He liked him. He thought he was an honest guy. And he, Allen, thought I was rather brave to do it, knowing the political repercussions. You can't win on these things. My response to people would be: “Don't you think more highly of Dean Acheson that he gave character testimony for Alger Hiss and said he wouldn't turn his back on him and testified for him,” as did a number of people -- as did, I think, Justice Frankfurter. “Aren't you obliged to provide testimony in the most unpleasant of cases, where all you're required to do is tell what you know?” But liberals have a sense of morality that's a very personal one. If it suits their morality, it's okay. There are no eternal truths for liberals.





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help