Donald Trump in an interview with Newsmax/ screenshot
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear an appeal on Donald Trump’s claim that the President of the United States is Immune from prosecution for… well anything he did while in office. A Federal Appeals Court had previously rejected the claim of Presidential immunity, allowing a federal case against Trump over the January 6, 2021 insurrection to move forward. This came while New York prosecutors charge that Donald Trump is trying to hide assets in Florida to avoid payment of the $464 million a court ordered him to pay when he was found guilty of fraud.
If Donald Trump wins his case, then he cannot even be prosecuted for trying to interfere with the certifications of the 2020 Presidential election results in a number of states such as Georgia.
Donald Trump thinks that a President of the United States should be allowed to do anything and everything without having to suffer any consequences for his actions, other than possibly being impeached and removed from office. This seems absurd and most observers thought that the Supreme Court would not even hear the appeal.
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In its rejections of Donald Trump’s claim, the appellate court stated, “We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a president has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power – the recognition and implementation of election results.”
The Supreme Court, however, said that it will consider any and all matters in which a sitting US president may have criminal immunity for his actions. This fact may be a “tell” on the Court’s part, signaling that it is not likely to uphold Donald Trump’s claim of full immunity, but that it is just going to determine if there are at least some areas in which a president has immunity.
Donald Trump was obviously happy with Wednesday’s decision. He has long claimed – without merit – that the many prosecutions against him are nothing more than a politically motivated attack, an attempt to keep him from returning to office.
He stated that without such immunity, “Presidents will always be concerned, and even paralyzed, by the prospect of wrongful prosecution and retaliation after they leave office.”
“This could actually lead to the extortion and blackmail of a President,” he absurdly claimed.
But Donald Trump should be careful what he wishes for. If the Supreme Court agrees to grant the President such unrestricted immunity then President Biden could kill Trump himself and not need to be worried about any consequences.
In addition, any such ruling would only apply to federal cases. The various states would still be free to prosecute Donald Trump as the State of Georgia is currently doing over Trump’s attempts to interfere with its certification of the 2020 election.
As for the New York case, which Donald Trump lost, New York authorities allege that Donald Trump has already moved $40 million in assets out of the state.
Dennis Fan, a senior assistant solicitor general in the New York Attorney General’s office, told appellate judges, “There is substantial risk that defendants will attempt to evade enforcement of the judgment (or make enforcement more difficult) following appeal.”
“As the court recognized earlier in this case,” he added, “there is unfortunately a distinct need to ‘ensure that defendants do not dissipate their assets or transfer them out of this jurisdiction.”
Even so, there are a number of properties in New York State listed in Donald Trump’s name that the state could confiscate if it came to that.
