#The Big Lie

[justinspoliticalcorner]

S.V. Dáte at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON — A presidential order to the military to conduct a coup to keep him in office “might well be an official act,” Donald Trump’s lawyer told the Supreme Court Thursday on the question of whether Trump’s attempted coup is immune from prosecution. The extraordinary exchange was among several in lengthy oral arguments before the justices, who will now decide whether the former president will stand trial on federal charges based on his actions leading up to the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has been claiming that all his actions as president were “official acts” and therefore immune from prosecution entirely. While justices seemed skeptical of that assertion, most expressed concern that former presidents could be prosecuted in bad faith and for political reasons in the years to come.

“Reliance on the good faith of the prosecutor may not be enough,” Chief Justice John Roberts told Department of Justice lawyer Michael Dreeben. “I take that concern,” added Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “I think it’s a real thing.” How justices decide to protect future presidents from prosecutions based on their legitimate official actions could decide whether Trump faces a trial at all before the November election on the Jan. 6 indictment. If the court orders trial judge Tanya Chutkan to hold an evidentiary hearing to weed out the “official” components of Trump’s actions versus the ones for his private or political gain, that hearing and potential appeals of her ruling could consume many more months. And if Trump wins back the White House, he could order prosecutors to drop all unresolved federal charges against him.

While Dreeben did not refer to the coming election at all, he repeated his boss special counsel Jack Smith’s request that the case be sent back to Chutkan with instructions that concerns about not punishing “official” acts be dealt with in jury instructions, rather than a separate hearing. “We would like to present that as an integrated picture to the jury so that it sees the sequence and the gravity of the conduct and why each step occurred,” Dreeben said. Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, meanwhile came in for even more pointed questioning from most of the justices, but none more on point than Elena Kagan’s question about 40 minutes in.

“How about if the president orders the military to stage a coup?” Kagan asked. “That might well be an official act,” Sauer answered. Sauer also claimed that a presidential assassination of a political rival as well as the sale of nuclear secrets to a foreign power could also be defended as official acts immune from prosecution. Trump was not at the Supreme Court during the oral arguments Thursday but rather was in a different courtroom, in lower Manhattan, in the early phase of an unrelated criminal trial.

During the oral arguments for the Trump v. United States presidential immunity case at SCOTUS on Thursday, Trump lawyer John Sauer told the court that even a military coup would be immune from prosecution as an "official act."

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Lawyer Argues He Could Legally Order Assassination Of Political Rival

[socialjusticeinamerica]

F—k off already you MAGA morons.

[rejectingrepublicans]

F—king Republican lies! From the South African draft dodger who fled to Canada and then to the US.

[republikkkanorcs]

[liberalsarecool]

"We cannot accept former President Trump's claim that a president has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralise the most fundamental check on executive power - the recognition and implementation of election results," the three-judge appeals court panel wrote in its opinion.

Lock him up.

All who touch Trump will die.

[contemplatingoutlander]

For the first time I can recall, a headline in The Washington Post referred to Trump's 2020 election fraud claims as being a "LIE"

The Washington Post didn't use the word "falsehood."

They didn't use any of the other euphemisms they often employ instead of the word "lie," when referring to Donald Trump's and MAGA Republicans' claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

Readers have repeatedly admonished the Post for not using the word "lie."

Some editor apparently finally listened.

Not that I'm expecting the POST to stop using euphemisms.

But at least it was a step forward.

Maybe one of these days the Post will start consistently using the label "neofascist" to describe Trump and his MAGA movement.

Until the MSM stops using euphemisms and starts using harsh words that are nonetheless true, our nation will continue to sleepwalk into a possible neofascist regime.

[edited]

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

It’s a safe bet that most of these jackasses never read the Constitution let alone understand it.

😡

[porterdavis]

You could knock me over with a feather

[ropesbypatricia]

Shibari + sacrilege?

Oh, Nun for me, thanks...😈

Rope + model: me

Photos by my SO

[mysharona1987]

[odinsblog]

Russia has a Nazi problem

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[rejectingrepublicans]

[republikkkanorcs]

If this traitor came out of the closet he wouldn’t be getting blackmailed by the Russians and the Republikkkans.

[liberalsarecool]

The whole thing is based on a lie. Never forget.

The entire Right Wing will die on a hill defending the lies of white supremacy.

Without lies, corrupt dishonest white men could never compete.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]