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Friday afternoon on The Five, Bob Beckel tore into Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for an online ad he released this week that uses the IRS scandal to equate President Obama with Richard Nixon. Beckel called it “one of the cheapest ads I’ve seen” and said to McConnell, “you ought to be ashamed of yourself!” “To politicize this thing before you have the hearings,” Beckel went on, “and to go on the air with that kind ad, that’s a muckraking, disgraceful, disgusting ad, and it’s typical of a guy from the bourbon state.” To protestations from his co-hosts, Beckel said “in...

Former President Donald Trump shared a positive note following last week’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing, in which justices heard arguments from his legal team about “presidential immunity” stemming from charges brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Trump reacted to the “monumental” hearing Thursday, saying he thinks it was “made clear” that a president “has to have immunity.”

Following the nearly three-hour oral argument about presidential immunity in the Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, many commentators were aghast. The general theme, among legal and political experts alike, was a hand-over-the-mouth, how-dare-they assessment of the mostly conservative justices’ questioning of the attorneys who appeared before them in the case known as Trump v. United States. Rather than a laser-focused, deep dive into the details of Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election, virtually all of the nine justices instead raised larger questions, peppered with hypotheticals – hello again, Seal Team Six! – about the reach of executive power,...

On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's The Weekend, hosts and guests alike bemoaned Biden's failure to seek to pack the Supreme Court. Their comments came in response to oral arguments at the Court this past week on the case regarding Trump's claim of presidential immunity. The panel expressed fears that the Court might expand presidential immunity -- if not to the extent of the right to assassinate political rivals, as Trump's lawyer suggested could be an immune act. Co-host Alicia Menendez teed up the packing notion, saying that in light of what happened in the Court last week, clearly something "structural"--packing...

Clarence Thomas Questions Presidential Immunity Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently questioned Special Counsel's Attorney Michael Dreeben about the lack of prosecutions against previous presidents for activities such as coups and operations like Operation Mongoose, which involved the CIA carrying out terrorist attacks against Cuban civilians. During a hearing on Presidential immunity, Thomas raised the issue, sparking significant interest and debate on social media. The discussion aimed to address the complexities surrounding presidential immunity and the potential implications for past and future administrations. Operation Mongoose: The Cuban Project, also known as Operation Mongoose, was an extensive campaign of terrorist attacks...

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments Thursday on whether former President Donald Trump can be criminally prosecuted over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The justices have taken up the monumental question of if, and if so to what extent, former presidents enjoy immunity for conduct alleged to involve official acts during their time in office. The high court's decision will determine if Trump stands trial before the November election on four charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, including conspiracy to defraud the United States. Throughout arguments, multiple of the justices made clear they were looking...

The Constitutional Coalition and former Attorney General John Ashcroft filed an amicus curiae (Friend of the Court) in the United States Supreme Court in the case United States v. Trump. The appeal to the Supreme Court concerns the question of presidential immunity. More specifically, whether a subsequent president may criminally prosecute his (or her) predecessor, and current political rival, for official acts the previous president took while in office. This amicus brief was not filed on behalf of either party – Special Counsel Jack Smith (hired by Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute former President Trump) nor on behalf of...

Cernovich @Cernovich SCOTUS most likely to rule against Trump while upholding presidential immunity generally. J6 will be outside of scope of immunity.

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request they take up the issue of presidential immunity after Judge Tanya Chutkan denied two motions to dismiss from Trump’s team, based on First Amendment and presidential immunity claims. Trump and his lawyers responded with a filing demanding the Court wait until the lower appeals court rules on the issue. On Thursday, Smith filed a scathing response opposing Trump’s motion, writing: Respondent agrees that the important constitutional question in this case will require this Court’s review. But he maintains that the Court should wait for the appellate process to...

Trump is arguing that presidents, even after their term is over, are absolutely immune from criminal prosecutions arising out of their acts in office. Thursday afternoon in a Washington, D.C., federal court, former President Donald Trump filed a motion to dismiss the case pending against him there for his alleged actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The motion cites presidential immunity as a ground to dismiss the case in its entirety. The motion persuasively argues that the D.C. case should be dismissed, and if past practice is any guide all proceedings could and should be stayed while this...