Amicus Brief from President Joseph R. “Joe” Biden, regarding The United States versus Donald J. Trump, specifically regarding the defendant's request to have charges against him, that he undertook a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election, dropped on the grounds of presidential immunity.
A. Descriptions of the Identities and Interests describing or explaining:
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the name and identities of each amicus;
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the interests of each amicus in the appeal; and
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how the amicus brief will be relevant to the issues involved in the appeal and the ways in which the brief will contribute materially to the proper disposition of the appeal;
[Skipping required clauses regarding corporate declarations and declarations of emolument that are long-winded and irrelevant to this brief.]
D. Summary of the Argument
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If the Court were to hold in the defendant's favor, they would declare me a dictator beyond the power of the law, either in office or out of office. If they were to declare me a dictator, I would declare a state of national emergency. I would do what I must to ensure that the current Supreme Court, which shall have declared me a dictator, never wields power again. I would do what I must to ensure that the Republican Party, which has become an insurrectionist party in the thrall of a would-be dictator, shall never wield power again.
E. Argument
Donald Trump wanted to be dictator. He didn't pull it off, thank goodness. He did a heck of a lot, though, to try to break the Republic. He lied about the election results, he inspired and directed thousands of people to storm the Capitol and "fight like hell" to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and he conspired with a variety of overlapping extremist reactionary networks to steal the 2020 election from me and, more importantly, from the American people who elected me.
Now Donald Trump wants you to rule that he can't be held accountable for his criminal actions because, while the House of Representatives impeached him for his actions leading up to and on January 6, 2021, the Senate failed to convict him. He wants immunity on grounds of the prohibition against being tried twice for the same alleged crime, and he also wants immunity on grounds that a president cannot be prosecuted for his actions while in office.
As you know, given our current political configuration, it's almost impossible to convict an impeached politician, particularly a Republican politician, given the thorough corruption and moral depravity of the Republican Party. (Their standard-bearer has been determined by a US Court to have raped at least one woman. If that's not a sign of moral depravity, then I'm the emperor of ice cream.) Therefore, if you grant the defendant's request, you will make the president a de facto dictator. In the unlikely event that Donald Trump were to return to the presidency, no Congress in the foreseeable future would convict him no matter what crimes he committed.
In the meantime, I am the president. I acknowledge that my case might be different. Democrats still act with consciences. I might possibly be subject to impeachment and conviction, if I were to commit crimes. But there's no guarantee that I would be convicted either, and you should know that I am one hundred percent ready to take my chances, if you were to declare me immune from prosecution.
My first order of business, were you to declare me dictator, would be to imprison those of you who will have voted me dictator. You would deserve it. Hell, you deserve it already. Frankly, you're disgraces. You claim to believe in made-up legal doctrines, like the nonsensical "major question" doctrine, and then preposterously claim that this made-up malarky comports with your equally bogus and insincere claim to be "originalists." You disgrace yourself on the regular, and, worse, you lied to Congress. That's a felony, bubs. To prison you will go. If you make me dictator, you can count on trading in your long black robes for orange.
My second order of business will be to lay the 14th Amendment on any politician who was in office on January 6, 2021, and who supports Donald J. Trump, and declare them ineligible for office. Hell, in my view they're ineligible already, and it's only by reason of the politesse of the Democrats that we haven't laid the 14th Amendment on the lot of them already. You know the Constitutional prohibition against insurrectionists serving in federal or state office, when they had previously sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution. That's in the 14th Amendment. And if you make me dictator, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be wielding it to protect the American people from would-be fascists.
Now, I'm not unaware of the paradox of using dictatorial powers to prevent fascists from seizing the government. But if you grant me those powers, I feel that I will have no choice. You will have ended the American experiment already. It's only by facing that reality that America will have a chance of returning to a democracy. I believe that your granting me dictatorial powers will force me to use them, but only to prevent anybody else from using those powers to harm this great country.
After removing you from power and preventing Republican insurrectionists from serving in government, I will nominate worthy justices to replace you, on the condition that they vote to overturn your decision to grant me dictatorial powers. Once they restore the rule of law, I will cease to abuse and violate it.
F. Conclusion
If you want to make me a dictator, I'll take it and do what I need to do to restore the rule of law. And that will mean throwing you in prison and removing much of the Republican Congressional caucus from office, until we can restore American institutions and find people who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law to put in those vacant positions of power and authority.
You don't want to test me.
Sincerely,
Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States