While former President Donald Trump sits in a Manhattan courtroom where he faces 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business documents related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election, the presumptive GOP nominee also awaits a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding his claim of “presidential immunity.”
If SCOTUS grants the broad immunity that Trump has asked for, he may be protected from some or all of the conspiracy and obstruction charges he faces related to his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Former Congresswoman and vice chair of the House Select Committee on the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Liz Cheney, has made her opinion regarding the deliberation of SCOTUS clear in today’s New York Times.
No President who tries to steal an election and seize power is entitled to immunity for those acts. The American people deserve to hear all of the J6 evidence presented in open court. SCOTUS should conclude without delay that no immunity applies here. https://t.co/GUH9SxLDLJ
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) April 22, 2024
In her op-ed essay, ‘The Supreme Court Should Rule Swiftly on Trump’s Immunity Claim,’ she wrote: “No President who tries to steal an election and seize power is entitled to immunity for those acts. The American people deserve to hear all of the J6 evidence presented in open court. SCOTUS should conclude without delay that no immunity applies here.”
While Cheney often finds herself virtually alone in today’s Republican Party, which has experienced a large-scale MAGA takeover and the broad displacement of establishment Republicans, she is not alone in her opinion on the limits of presidential immunity.
Recently 15 founding era historians submitted a SCOTUS brief asking the high court to reject Trump’s immunity claims. Other organizations filing amicus briefs with the court asking the justices to sink Trump’s immunity claims include the ACLU and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
On the other side of the issue, conservative Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall led an 18-state amicus brief asking the justices to find in favor of Trump’s immunity claims.
While MAGA loyalists are responding to Cheney’s essay with conspiracy theory accusations about Cheney “destroying evidence” regarding January 6, the majority of the comments on the Times agree with Cheney (“the justices…need to quickly squash Trump’s absurd immunity claim”).
But on a John Roberts court that has had its ethics — especially around Justice Thomas’s emoluments — brought into question, concerns abound among the commenters that a “very corrupt Supreme Court of the United States will hand over immunity” to Trump.