Trump’s main line of defense against his indictment for instigating the Jan. 6th insurrection seems to be that he can’t be prosecuted because he has absolute immunity and that whatever he did while in office constitutes an ‘official act’. When appellate judge Florence Pan asked Trump’s attorneys the hypothetical question, “Could a president order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival? That is an official act, an order to SEAL Team Six?”, seeking to find the boundaries of his immunity claim and what might be a prosecutable offense, his attorney tapped dance before providing an entirely unsatisfactory answer to what most people would assume is a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question.
Trump’s legal team has argued that unless he is impeached and convicted in the U.S. Senate, he can’t be criminally tried for anything, i.e., his immunity is absolute. Think about that for a second. If Trump gets re-elected, and he may or may not be a convicted felon when that happens, he will surround himself with sycophants. Further, if the Republicans can gain control of the House and the Senate, does anyone really believe such a Congress would bring impeachment articles against Trump let alone convict him for anything? He has already been impeached twice but the cowardly Republicans would not convict him in the Senate. I wonder how many regret their spineless performance now.
If the judges were to uphold the argument that Trump cannot be criminally prosecuted unless he is first impeached and convicted by the U.S. Congress, that is like putting the inmates in charge of the asylum or giving the Gambino crime family the keys to the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan. It makes a complete mockery of the Rule of Law and the U.S. Constitution.
With all the wingnuts now in control of the Republican party in Congress, it is easy to envision very ugly scenarios. What if Trump enlists various thugs or ‘Proud Boy’ types or even Seal Team six to take out media people who Trump finds objectionable or political rivals who he views as a threat? Anyone involved in those operations could easily be pardoned by Trump because the president has essentially unlimited pardoning power.
As for Trump himself, one can easily envision how Trump supporters in the Congress would either fail to bring articles of impeachment or fail to convict him if he were impeached by simply rationalizing that Trump did what he did to protect America since he viewed these people as a threat to the country. This is what happens in Russia!! Putin routinely has people killed or sent to Siberia and gets away with it. Is that really the country we want to live in?
And what about financial crimes? What is to keep Trump from using the office of the presidency to further enrich himself and his family if he knows it will be almost impossible for anyone to convict him of crimes, particularly if he has enough flunkies in Congress who support him (and they get a share of the riches).
One can only hope the appellate court and then the U.S. Supreme Court will see the absurdity of Trump’s arguments and the danger they pose to America. Just think about it- a president with unlimited ability to pardon people who cannot be prosecuted unless he is first impeached and convicted by a Congress potentially made up of a majority of people who are Trump supporters!! Talk about a FrankenTrump! Trump will be so drunk on such absolute power and using it to carry out personal vendettas or enrich himself and his acolytes he probably won’t even notice or care if the entire Russian and Chinese fleets sail into every major harbor in the country.
Stephen King could not imagine a more nightmarish, horror story! Goodbye democracy. Hello dictatorship and oligarchy.
