STORY: “No person is above the law” – not even a U.S. president.
That’s what Special Counsel Jack Smith is arguing in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the justices to reject Donald Trump’s bid for immunity from prosecution – on charges of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss.
“…They’re not taking this White House. We’re going to fight like hell…”
Smith filed the brief Monday before the justices hear oral arguments on April 25 over Trump’s presidential immunity claims.
In his brief, Smith said:
“The effective functioning of the presidency does not require that a former president be immune from accountability for these alleged violations of federal criminal law. To the contrary, a bedrock principle of our constitutional order is that no person is above the law including the president.”
Smith is bringing four federal criminal counts against Trump in the election subversion case.
Those include conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct as well as obstructing the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, and conspiring against the right of Americans to vote.
“…We don’t concede when there’s theft involved…”
Trump has pleaded not guilty in this case and the three other criminal cases he faces, seeking to paint them as politically motivated.
He is the first former president to be criminally prosecuted.
And he has argued for the importance of presidential immunity, saying:
“The threat of future prosecution and imprisonment would become a political cudgel to influence the most sensitive and controversial presidential decisions.”
But Smith’s view was backed on Monday by a group of 19 retired four-star U.S. military officers and other former high-ranking national security officials.
They filed a supporting brief, calling Trump’s immunity claim “contrary to the foundational principles of our democracy.”
They also warned that if his theory is not rejected:
“…We risk jeopardizing America’s standing as a guardian of democracy in the world and further feeding the spread of authoritarianism, thereby threatening the national security of the United States and democracies around the world.”
Two lower courts have dismissed the former president’s immunity claim.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments on his bid postponed his election subversion trial, giving Trump a boost as he tries to delay prosecutions while running for a return to the White House.
