payment to PORN STAR Stormy Daniels
Donald Trump and his minions have been arguing that as President he had total immunity from criminal prosecution because any actions he took in 2020 and those leading up to January 6, 2021 were part of his offical duty while he was President. On Thursday, April 25, 2024, in United States of America v. Donald J. Trump, the United States Supreme Court’s moderate and liberal justices posed some hypothetical scenarios to which Trump’s attorney answered in the affirmative stating that the President would still be immune from prosecution. Here is an example of some of the hypothetical questions asked, and answered.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, minutes into the arguments, raised the question of whether criminal immunity would extend to a president ordering the military, or someone else, to assassinate a political rival if they believed this person was “corrupt”
Trump’s lawyer D. John Sauer, affirmed that such a decision could “well be an official act” excluded from prosecution, telling Sotomayor, “It would depend on the hypothetical.”
Justice Elena Kagan asked the Trump attorney: “How about if a president orders the military to stage a coup?”
Sauer said that, likewise, under her hypothetical, that could “well be” official behavior of the president though “it would depend on the circumstances.”
He maintained that the only time a president could be criminally prosecuted was if they were impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate for the same crime.
“If the potential for criminal liability is taken off the table, wouldn’t there be a significant risk that future presidents would be emboldened to commit crimes with abandon while they’re in office?” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said.
Sauer indicated that such problems hadn’t occurred so far.
Source:
5 takeaways from historic Supreme Court arguments on Trump’s immunity claim.
By Alexandra Hutzler and Meredith Deliso
April 25, 2024, 4:06 PM
Let’s play devils advocate. Say that hypothetically, Joe Biden decided that he does agree with Trump’s assertion that Presidents have total immunity from criminal prosecution. He wakes up next week realizing that he could lose the 2024 Presidential election because Trump’s approval ratings have gone sky high due to the Supreme Court’s decision to send the case back to the DC Court of Appeals. Since he does not want to give up his power and presidency, Biden, in his official capacity of Commander in Chief declares that Trump is a traitor and a threat to our national security so he orders the United States Milatary to apprehend Ex-President Donald J. Trump. Trump is arrested and sent to Quantanimo Bay or worse, to some U.S. Operated Secret Dark Prison.
I wonder if in this hypothetical situation the Supreme Court would say that they are not concerned about this case, and continue to talk about hypotectical future bad acts by presidents. We can be sure that if this did actually happen Trump’s minions would press the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and resolve the issue immediately. Let’s remember that it is Trump’s legal philosophy that the President is immune from all criminal prosecution, and that his power is absolute.
Would the conservative Supreme Court Justices, Trump’s political allies, and the entire MAGA movement still be arguing that the President’s power is abolute, and that he could not not be held criminally liable no matter what ?
Didn’t candidate Donald Trump in January 2016 say “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters?” Hindsight is 2020, we should have been paying closer attention to his irrational logic.
I say lets just end all Federal court proceedings right now, today. Since as Trump’s team insists the President’s powers are absolute and unpunishable, President Joe Biden should just have Donald Trump arrested as a threat to democracy, lock him up in some unknown prison, and let the court’s sort it all out latter. Afterall, isn’t that how it’s supposed be in Trump’s America?
Let’s hope that this American experiment does not end abruptly. Contrary to popular belief America is not TO BIG TO FAIL.