Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance has suggested that the Special Counsel’s team should present an extreme hypothetical argument against absolute immunity for presidents accused of crimes by suggesting it could be used to target judges. Vance’s remarks come ahead of the Supreme Court hearing arguments on whether the federal charges against Trump over his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results can be dismissed as the allegations relate to his time in the White House. Vance noted that a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit previously dismissed Trump’s lawyers’ arguments that a president must first be convicted by the Senate before they can face criminal prosecution. Under these circumstances, a sitting president could order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival and then resign from office before being convicted by the Senate, thus escaping prosecution. Vance believes that Smith’s team should now put forward a more extreme version of this argument on April 25 in relation to Supreme Court judges. Vance wrote: “The hypothetical, or ‘hypo’ as it’s abbreviated in legalese, that I’m hoping the government will pose in argument is a more extreme version of the SEAL Team Six hypo we heard in the Court of Appeals, where a judge asked if Trump’s theory would absolve him if he used the military to take out political opponents.” “Why not take it a step further and tell the court that if Trump has the sort of broad immunity he claims he does, a president would be free to order the assassination of Supreme Court justices who disagree with him, and could not be prosecuted for doing that. Make the impact of Trump’s argument unmistakable.” If the Supreme Court rules that any president is immune from criminal prosecution, it would be “inflicting a grievous blow” to its own legitimacy, according to civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone. DeSimone stated: “The logic of a timeless presidential immunity from criminal prosecution does not make any sense, and the average American can see that.” If the Supreme Court reverses the lower courts’ decision, the federal case will be thrown out. If the nation’s highest court votes that Trump cannot cite absolute immunity, the case will return to Judge Chutkan, who froze proceedings pending the result of the immunity argument. However, the start of any trial could still be several months away, with Chutkan previously assuring that Trump’s legal team will be given months to prepare for the case once it returns to the court.
Trump’s Immunity Argument Could ‘Inflict a Grievous Blow’ on Supreme Court, Expert Warns
