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Breaking news. It looks like the jury convicted Donald Trump in the "hush money" case.
This verdict will likely galvanize voters come November – leading to record turnout among Republicans. I might even vote for the old rascal myself as I view this lawfare as both morally wrong and deeply destabilizing.
To make a prediction closer to home, we're now certain to cross 1000 posts on the weekly thread.
On the bright side, I believe this conviction will make it quite a bit more likely SCOTUS hands down a more expansive presidential immunity case which will bar this prosecution. Prior to this case, I was confident they would hand down narrow caselaw which would protect Trump. With this conviction, I believe they're more likely to adopt a more expansive view in order to make sure the holding squelches these sorts of state-law prosecutions. We may even get a case which requires impeachment and removal in order to open a former president to prosecution, especially for state crimes.
The case, Trump v United States, should be published next month.
What, you mean this case?
It doesn't appear to involve normal crimes so much as misuse of the office. Or perhaps I'm misreading. I don't see why eternal immunity from states would be on the table.
Also, wow, that sounds absolutely horrendous. Would a murder charge require Congress to convene and impeach?
It is Trump's position, as his lawyer argued both in the court of appeals and to SCOTUS, that if a President ordered SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival such President could not be charged with a crime unless impeached and removed.
It's kind of wild to be running on a platform of "my opponent can legally assassinate me", but here we are.
Of course he isn’t. The argument isn’t about legality but forum for hearing the claim.
The practical import of Trump's argument is that as long as Democrats refuse to convict Biden in the Senate, Biden can legally assassinate him.
You could of course argue that Democrats are too noble and high-minded to abuse the system in this way. But that seems like an odd argument to run alongside the claim that they have corrupted and perverted the justice system specifically to target him.
If a third of sitting senators are willing to openly endorse the assassination of domestic political rivals, we're long past the point of these sorts of debates mattering. And if the crime is either not substantial enough or not evidenced enough to convince two thirds of the Senate, maybe convicting the president wouldn't be such a good idea afterall. That seems like exactly the sort of decision we would want widespread, general consensus on, doesn't it?
I don't necessarily think such an expansive view of presidential immunity is allowed or required by the Constitution (I haven't researched the issue anywhere near thoroughly enough to have a strong opinion either way, but tend to be skeptical of governmental immunity arguments generally), but there's at least a reasonable argument that impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate is the only mechanism for punishing the conduct of a sitting president.
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You would think many thinks would so shock the conscience of even Dems that a literal assassination order would result in impeachment and removal. If not, then inter arma enim silent leges
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