FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower, May 31, 2024, in New York. Trump's lawyers have sent a letter to the Manhattan judge in his hush money criminal case seeking permission to file a motion to set aside the verdict. The letter to Judge Juan M. Merchan cited the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on July 1 and asked the judge to delay Trump's sentencing while he weighs the high court's decision and how it could influence the New York case. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
NEXT UP: A TRUMP MINI TRIAL?
The Supreme Court handed Trump broad new protections from criminal prosecution. But it also set the stage for fresh courtroom drama, right before the election, centered on some of Trump’s worst behavior.
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The court’s conservative supermajority gave disgraced former President Trump “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for all “official acts,” in a sweeping decision that fundamentally reshapes the American presidency. The court ruled presidents don’t enjoy such immunity for non-official acts, however, meaning Trump can still theoretically be convicted in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case, pending some more wrangling over whether Trump’s attempts to reverse his electoral defeat were technically part of his job.
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor slammed the 6-3 ruling for making a “mockery” of the principle that “no man is above the law.” The Constitution, she argued, should not shield “a former President from answering for criminal and treasonous acts.” Sotomayor proceeded to list some hair-raising things a president might now do without fear of prosecution: “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.” We’re not in the despair business here, but this is bad.
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The court’s grant of absolute immunity is so broad that it would have let disgraced former president Richard Nixon walk after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, his own former White House lawyer-turned-whistleblower Jo
hn Dean told CNN — that is, if Nixon hadn’t been pardoned by his successor, former President Gerald Ford. Yes, the Court’s conservative justices are so far gone that, at this point, we’re expecting them to issue a decision any day now saying: “Watergate was fine, actually.”
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But the high court’s decision also creates an opportunity for a very public deep dive before the election into exactly what Trump did — an event that some are already calling the Trump “mini-trial.”
If Trump wins the election, he’ll be able to tell his new Attorney General to drop the case — meaning the mini-trial might be the only criminal accountability he’d ever face for January 6. |
- Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, slamming the right-wing majority opinion granting presidents extraordinary immunity.
NEWS NEWS NEWS
MAGA provocateur Steve Bannon reported to federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Monday to begin serving his four-month sentence. Bannon turned himself in after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute bid to avoid prison time for defying Congress’ subpoenas related to the Capitol riot. He also recorded one last episode of his podcast before reporting to prison, something all podcasters should consider!!!
Hunter Biden sued Fox News over its “The Trial of Hunter Biden” miniseries, alleging that the network violated New York’s revenge porn laws by using “intimate images” of Biden “depicting him in the nude, depicting an unclothed or exposed intimate part of him, as well as engaged in sex acts…” I don’t know how many more cycles of “Hunter Biden’s laptop” discourse we as a nation have left in us.
Biden’s campaign is working behind the scenes to calm donors who were jarred by his subpar performance in last week’s debate. NBC News reported that Biden’s campaign manager told roughly 40 of his biggest donors in a phone call that he has no plans to exit the race but added that if he did, purely hypothetically, most of the campaign funds would go to Vice President Kamala Harris. Y’know… what might really assuage Democratic fears is having a nominee everyone feels is fully in the driver’s seat, but hey, what do we know!
A majority of voters said Biden should be replaced as the Democratic nominee — but in that same poll, most still picked him over Trump. That’s according to a new Morning Consult survey, in which 60 percent of respondents said Biden should “probably” or “definitely” be replaced. But in a two-way race, 45 percent chose Biden, while 44 percent went with Trump.
The Supreme Court extended First Amendment protections to online content moderation. In Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the court said social media platforms’ curation of “others’ speech into an expressive product of its own” is protected by the First Amendment. The court remanded both cases back to lower appeals courts, saying they hadn’t properly analyzed free speech issues in the cases.
Benjamin Netanyahu is cozying up to Mario Bramnick, a far-right pastor who wants all Jews to convert to Christianity, HuffPost reported.
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) was charged with a weapons violation after TSA officers detected a firearm in her carry-on bag at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. The gun was unloaded, a TSA spokesperson told Axios. Spartz is running for reelection in November, after initially announcing her retirement from Congress.
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