UC Berkeley Law professor John Yoo breaks down the Trump team's arguments in the classified documents case, attacks against Judge Aileen Cannon and the remaining Trump Supreme Court cases.
Even though the Supreme Court has yet to issue its ruling on presidential immunity (expect it on Monday morning), Donald Trump may no longer need it to win.
On Friday, the justices’ decision in Fischer v. United States squashed much of the Justice Department’s investigation into the former president’s involvement with the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Even if the court on Monday holds presidents fully liable to federal prosecution after leaving office, President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland would be wise to shut down the special counsel investigation, blame its failures on the Supreme Court, and leave the question of Trump’s responsibility up to the people in November.
Former President Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith (Getty Images)
On the legal question alone, Fischer v. United States was relatively simple and uncontroversial. It held that DOJ had improperly read the obstruction provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ("SOX"). SOX made it a crime for company personnel to shred documents and tamper with witnesses in an official federal investigation.
SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH FISHERMEN IN LANDMARK CASE DECIDING FATE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE
Writing for a 6-3 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts held that "the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceedings of records,........