The Supreme Court ruled the President may be issued a subpoena for evidence from Congressional Committees and any Prosecutor in the country.   There is no blanket immunity because Trump is president.   This assertion of absolute immunity from the issuance of subpoena was part of the claim made by Trump.   Most legal experts felt Trump would lose on this point.    Trump attacked both the Supreme Court and the New York prosecutors who issued the subpoena;

“The Supreme Court sends case back to Lower Court, arguments to continue,” Trump wrote. “This is all a political prosecution. … I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York. Not fair to this Presidency or Administration! … Courts in the past have given ‘broad deference’. BUT NOT ME!”

Trump went into this great conspiracy nonsense later on Fox News.   The judicial system is disgraceful when they they investigate his close associates.  Actually, the justice system is doing their job when they prosecuted Manafort, Flynn,  Stone, and Papadopolous.    Trump can rant and rave all he wants on Fox News.   What is so abundantly clear, is that when close associates of Trump don’t cooperate with prosecutors, then they are good people and don’t deserve to go to jail.   But those who rat on him, are the bad people (like Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer) and deserve their sentences.   Even Roger Stone admitted that his sentence was commuted from 40 months in jail to zero, because he kept his mouth shut.  This stinks to high heaven.

The truth of the matter, is that our judicial system is doing just fine.   The damage done is repairable, which I hope can happen after the November elections.  The court case in practical terms, was a win for Trump, because he doesn’t have to release his taxes prior to the election.  In fact, experts say there the cases could stretch on for a long time perhaps late 2021.  The broad subpoena from Congress will have may never be executed.

The Supreme Court very rarely has to rule on subpoenas from Congress because some accommodation is worked out.  The Supreme Court in their ruling has laid down certain criteria for executing subpoenas against a president, to really protect the president and also to allow appropriate requests from Congress and prosecutors to be executed.   I believe what was particularly important to Chief Justice Roberts was that this ruling included three conservative, Republican nominated justices (Roberts, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch) along with the four liberal justices on the court.

Having the subpoena issue pushed off to next year is likely for the best.  If the Supreme Court has enforced the Congressional subpoena, I believe it would be damaging to Trump just before the election. He could blame his defeat on “political prosecution.”   Oh gee, he’s already claiming this!

It isn’t political prosecution or harassment.   It is equal application of the law for everyone.  No absolute immunity for Donald Trump.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

I’ve copied a few opinions on the Supreme Court case.   The opinions are on the supremecourt.gov website.

NYT Opinion:  The Supreme Court Lets Trump Run Out the Clock

Politico: Supreme Court splits on Trump tax cases, potentially shielding returns until after election

Washington Post: Supreme Court says Manhattan prosecutor may pursue Trump’s financial records, denies Congress access for now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pa