Three strikes and you’re out
For the third time, Donald Trump has been told that he has no presidential immunity in a pending case. This time, it involves the defamation lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, who Trump was found guilty of assaulting. Even though this is a civil matter relating to something well before Trump became “president,” it is stacking the cards against him in his criminal trials. If he has no immunity, he has no immunity regardless of the elements of the case. In fact, Trump’s when attorneys filed for immunity, they claimed that he could not be subject to liability, either civilly or criminally. Another court recently found Trump not immune in civil suits brought after Trump egged on his followers to vandalize the Capitol. The criminal charges filed by the Special Counsel relate to the same incident, and that ruling should have bearing on the criminal matter stemming from the same event.
The deck continues to stack against Donald Trump. Anyone who has done the things he’s done must pay for his wrong. Not only in his “presidency,” but in his business dealings, Trump has always operated below board. It is frankly surprising that he can find any attorneys to represent him given his penchant to refuse payment for services rendered. Sadly, he doesn’t even see that he’s a horrible excuse for a human being whose crimes are merely catching up with him. His lawyers are just as bad.
After finding out about Jack Smith’s motion for expedited ruling from SCOTUS, Trump’s attorney went back to the federal appeals court to advise that they should not rush their ruling on immunity. Apparently, they don’t know SCOTUS trumps (no pun intended) the appeals court. Of course, the downside for the Special Counsel is SCOTUS could take even longer to hear and consider his motion. Humorously, Trump’s lawyers wrote to the court of appeals: “The prosecution has one goal in this case: To unlawfully attempt to try, convict, and sentence President Trump before an election in which he is likely to defeat President Biden.” They call this prosecution “election interference.” First, they live in an alternate reality. Second, Special Counsel isn’t trying anything; he’s doing it, and he’s doing it well. What they are truly seeking, however, is what they always seek: a delay in the proceedings because they have no viable defense.
Trump’s lawyers claim that the Special Counsel has “partisan motives.” Nothing could be further from the truth, but they really have nothing else. Jack Smith is a law-and-order guy. He could care less about which “team” the accused is from. His only partisanship is to the law. He believes in it, he follows it to the letter, and that’s about the extent of Smith’s “partisan motives.” Smith was right when he wrote: “The public has a strong interest in this case proceeding to trial in a timely manner.” That we do. We have a strong interest in seeing Trump finally pay for his crimes. His attempts to negate our votes is a crime in which we should all be interested and wholeheartedly support so that nothing like this ever happens again.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years