In a brief before the Georgia Court, one of Trump’s parade of dubiously competent attorneys has asked the court to dismiss all charges against him by claiming absolute immunity for anything he did as president.
“Trump’s counsel argued in a new motion that the actions alleged in the indictment, which accuses the former president and 18 others of joining a criminal enterprise bent on keeping him in the White House after he lost the 2020 election, lie within the “outer perimeter” of his official duties as president.”
and to support this, the attorney made this grandiose claim:
”The “historical practice over 234 years” confirms the power to indict a current or former president for his official acts “does not exist,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow argued.
Well, now, an outside observer might note that “historical practice” is that Presidents generally DON’T BREAK THE LAW. At least not so overtly, self-servingly, and venially. Though, there IS one glaring exception to that rule, President Nixon, and what happened to him, is the devasting counter-argument to the president’s legal claims.
No, not the fact that he resigned under duress, that was an artifact of a time when we had a two-party system, and there were standards of decency, not a single party and a cult who will make any apology for bad behavior by its leaders. No the significant part was what happened AFTER he rewi
Concerned by the number of questions regarding President Nixon that came up during his first press conference on August 28, President Ford asked his White House Counsel Phil Buchen to quietly look into legal precedents for Presidential pardons. Benton Becker, a lawyer who had been involved in preparing for Ford’s Vice Presidential confirmation, assisted with the research. President Ford also talked to several key aides: Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Counsellors Robert Hartmann and Jack Marsh. Due to the sensitivity of the topic the discussions were a closely held secret. After considering all of the research and opinions gathered, on September 7 Ford made the decision to pardon the former President.
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On Sunday, September 8, 1974, President Ford addressed the nation from the Oval Office to announce his decision to “grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed.” President Ford noted in his remarks that the pardon reflected both his Presidential responsibilities and his personal beliefs. Shortly after the announcement former President Nixon released a statement accepting the pardon. Although such a statement wasn’t required President Ford felt it was very significant. By resigning and accepting the pardon, Nixon was publicly acknowledging his guilt in the Watergate cover up.
Now, whatever we think of the morals and decency of these folks, they DID know the ins and outs of the structures of power, and that they often took their own conduct to the bitter edges of legally acceptable. If THEY thought that Nixon needed a pardon, and if NIXON of all people accepted a pardon, then there is NO way any of them thought he was “absolutely immune” from prosecution. This is particularly true because of the legal effect of accepting a pardon is effectively the same as pleading guilty. As the Supreme Court held in Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79 (1915) “a pardon carries "an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it," .
So, everyone involved, a president, a recently ex- president, two White house lawyers, a Presidential Chief of Staff, and Henry F—ing Kissinger, all agreed that a president was NOT immune from anything and needed a pardon to avoid prosecution under the laws of the United States
Which means, that contrary to Trump’s legal assertion, we do not need to look to the
“historical practice over 234 years” to find the precedent that demolishes his immunity claim, just to something that happened almost exactly half a century ago