Trump tells Supreme Court that rejecting immunity claim ‘would be the end of the presidency as we know it’
CNN
Former President Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that future presidents could be vulnerable to “de facto blackmail and extortion while in office” if the justices did not accept his sweeping view of immunity against special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion charges.
Former President Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that future presidents could be vulnerable to “de facto blackmail and extortion while in office” if the justices did not accept his sweeping view of immunity against special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion charges. “The consequences of this court’s holding on presidential immunity are not confined to President Trump,” the former president’s attorneys told the court in a new brief. “If immunity is not recognized, every future President will be forced to grapple with the prospect of possibly being criminally prosecuted after leaving office every time he or she makes a politically controversial decision.” “That would be the end of the Presidency as we know it and would irreparably damage our Republic,” they wrote. Trump’s brief came weeks after the Supreme Court thrust itself into the former president’s legal woes once again by agreeing to decide whether he may claim immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for April 25. Tuesday, the former president and presumptive GOP White House nominee tripled down on the far-reaching claims of presidential immunity that lower courts have roundly rejected. His pleas to the high court sought to frame the issue as one that will define not just his fate, but the fate of all future presidents.
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