The conservative Supreme Court wants to hand Donald Trump immunity, but it has to get around a past Nixon case to do so, former Richard Nixon White House counsel John Dean said on Thursday afternoon.
Dean, who has previously mused about the ex-president's legal issues, took to social media following a bombshell Supreme Court hearing that saw Trump's lawyer arguing that a president may be able to order the assassination of an opponent without being held liable criminally.
"Today’s SCOTUS argument on Trump’s criminal immunity revealed an activist conservative majority that wants to provide presidential immunity," Dean said. "To do so, they must get around Nixon v Fitzgerald (1982), which clearly states there is no criminal immunity for presidents."
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Dean continued:
"For example, as stated in Nixon v Fitzgerald, in Chief Justice Burger’s concurring ruling in the 5-4 decision creating civil immunity: '… there is no contention that the President is immune from criminal prosecution in the courts under the criminal laws enacted by Congress, or by the States, for that matter. Nor would such a claim be credible. The Constitution itself provides that impeachment shall not bar ‘Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.’ Art. I, § 3, cl. 7. Similarly, our cases indicate that immunity from damages actions carries no protection from criminal prosecution.'"
In a separate post, Dean drew attention to one of Nixon's most infamous arguments.
"Lawyers used to laugh when they heard Nixon’s analysis during Frost/Nixon: 'When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.' Listening to the arguments before today’s Supreme Court, it appears the Republican Justices are all in with Richard Nixon," Dean said on social media on Thursday evening. "American democracy may be unraveling quickly…"
