Former President Donald Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith are currently locked in battle at the D.C. Circuit Court, and likely soon the U.S. Supreme Court, over the question of whether Trump retains presidential immunity as a protection against prosecution for actions taken while in office.
Unsurprisingly, the Democrat-aligned media is freaking out over the implications of Trump's immunity argument and how "dangerous" it would be for the nation if the courts rule in his favor, as exemplified by a recent MSNBC op-ed.
In their zeal to "get Trump," however, the former president's detractors overlook the fact that if Trump is denied the immunity from prosecution he has claimed, so too would President Joe Biden be opened up to potential prosecution on several different fronts once he has left office.
SCOTUSblog reported last week that the question of former President Trump's presidential immunity claim will be dealt with on an expedited basis by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals after the Supreme Court rejected an admittedly "extraordinary" demand from Special Counsel Smith to bypass normal procedures and issue a swift ruling on the matter.
That dispute at the appeals court level stemmed from the rejection earlier in December by D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of Trump's motion to dismiss all federal election-related charges against him based on his claimed immunity from prosecution for actions taken in the course of his presidential duties.
Those previously dismissed arguments have now been reiterated with dozens of supportive precedents and citations in a 71-page filing with the circuit court over the holiday weekend by Trump's attorneys.
Trump's main argument -- that his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election to challenge and question the disputed results were justified as part of his presidential duties -- was summed up in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
"I wasn’t campaigning, the Election was over. I was doing my duty as President to expose and further investigate a Rigged and Stolen Election. It was my obligation to do so, and the proof found is voluminous and irrefutable. Therefore, among other reasons, of course I am entitled to IMMUNITY. ADDITIONALLY, I DID NOTHING WRONG. Stop the Witch Hunt NOW!" he wrote.
Yet, the former president's critics, including in the MSNBC op-ed, are infuriated by Trump's claims of immunity and have asserted that, if true, Trump would essentially be untouchable in terms of efforts to impose accountability on him for allegedly illegal or unethical behavior.
Were the courts to rule in Trump's favor and construe his post-election activities as covered "official acts" under presidential immunity, the op-ed argued, "Neither Congress, nor the courts, nor the voters themselves can constrain a president in his framing."
"For the courts to agree would make Trump a president in name, an emperor in practice, and nothing close to what the Constitution and its drafters intended," the piece added.
That said, if the courts rule that former President Trump is not immune from prosecution for actions taken during his presidency, then President Biden might want to go ahead and lawyer up in anticipation of the inevitable tit-for-tat that will follow once he leaves office, as Trump alluded to in a Christmas Eve post to his Truth Social account.
Trump wrote, "Almost everybody agrees, even most of the crazed Radical Left Lunatics, that the Colorado decision is political delusion, and that I am, separately, fully entitled to PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY, without which Crooked Joe Biden, whose Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith, is merely serving his bosses wishes, would be prosecuted for destroying our Country, including his incompetently handled withdrawal from Afghanistan and, also, allowing millions of people to ILLEGALLY INVADE our Country and destroy the very fabric of what the United States stands for, and is all about. Should Crooked Joe be prosecuted for these, and other of his acts of stupidity?"
Thus, the short-sighted nature of the left's effort to strip Trump of presidential immunity, if successful, could backfire in an unexpected twist and render Biden, if not also other prior Democratic presidents like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, vulnerable to criminal prosecutions for actions taken during their respective presidencies.
