Prosecuting ex-Presidents for trying to thwart a lawful presidential election to stay in power will not pose any 'dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch'—it protects those powers—so Donald Trump should have no immunity under today's decision,
The indictment’s allegations that Trump attempted to pressure the Vice President to take particular acts in connection with his role at the certification proceeding thus involve official conduct, and Trump is at least presumptively immune from prosecution for such conduct,
On December 31 and January 3, the Defendant repeatedly raised with the Acting Attorney General and Acting Deputy Attorney General the allegation that in Pennsylvania, there had been 205,000 more votes than voters,
On December 3, the Defendant issued a Tweet amplifying the knowingly false claims made in Co Conspirator 1's [Rudy Giuliani's] presentation in Georgia,
Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President's official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the President's official duties,
In his opinion Judge Hellerstein found that Trump 'has expressly waived any argument premised on a theory of absolute presidential immunity.' So it won't work this time either,
This is a fundamentally new principle. It's a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court in the United States. The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone,
The court's decision delivers a real mess for the trial court to sort out, while preserving the court's ability to second guess whatever they do,
I think it's a very messy opinion which provides little guidance to the lower court on how to proceed, except to recognize that the claims regarding communications with the attorney general must be dismissed, and the claims relating to communications with Pence will likely have to be dismissed,
The court's descriptions of official functions and the penumbra around those functions will heavily impact these cases. Special Counsel Jack Smith has benefited from a highly favorable trial court judge. However, Judge Chutkan is no longer writing on a blank slate. The Court followed the right hook in the Fischer case with an absolute haymaker in the Trump case,
Logistically, I don’t see how Jack Smith and the DOJ can start either the D.C. or Florida trials against former president Trump before November, let alone finish them by then,
It is unlikely that a trial can occur before the election. There was a halt on pre-trial motions during the appeal. Now the court must also address the Fischer and Trump rulings,
WTF is going to happen now in the DC case after the Supreme Court immunity ruling? There is a silver lining here,
Then, for each of those witnesses, there needs to be a direct examination, a cross examination, and a rebuttal examination,
There will likely weeks—if not MONTHS—of hearings on the 'official act' questions. This summer and fall, right as the election nears."
What he did, who he was with, where he was, when he did it, how he did it, and why he did it,
Judge Chutkan now takes back over—with a 'fact-specific analysis' on whether Trump's actions were 'official acts' or not,
This not a trivial task,
When everybody says you are drunk, you’d better sit down,
Today's ruling doesn't change the facts, so let's be very clear about what happened on January 6: Donald Trump snapped after he lost the 2020 election and encouraged a mob to overthrow the results of a free and fair election,