The Justice Department has been foaming at the mouth trying to go after President Donald Trump. With President Biden at the helm pushing them, the March 2nd court case gave them and Democratic lawmakers the golden ticket to go after Trump because of the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol. The ruling tested Trump’s legal vulnerability due to his speech before the riots.
Along with the ruling, the Justice Department also told the Washington federal appeals court they were hearing the arguments that they needed to let the lawsuits come forward and that Trump was not immune as he claimed. Despite this suggestion, they claimed to have taken no position on the lawsuits, but they also told the court that “absolute immunity” would not apply to a President if he gave a speech that set the stage for an “incitement of imminent private violence.”
As the Justice Department wrote “As the Nation’s leader and head of state, the President has ‘an extraordinary power to speak to his fellow citizens and on their behalf.’ But that traditional function is one of public communication and persuasion, not incitement of imminent private violence.”
Filed by lawyers from the Civil Division of the Justice Department, this case is only applicable to any civil lawsuits that he might face. As such, it does not set any precedent for any criminal trial prosecutors may try to bring against Trump or anyone at the US Capitol on that fateful day. As his lawyers argued in court, Trump was acting well within his official duties and was under no obligation to watch his words. His call on thousands of supporters to “march on the Capitol” and “fight like hell” before chaos erupted was a perfectly legal action.
His lawyers wrote “The actions of rioters do not strip President Trump of immunity. In the run-up to January 6th and on the day itself, President Trump was acting well within the scope of ordinary presidential action when he engaged in open discussion and debate about the integrity of the 2020 election.”
On March 2nd, a Trump spokesman said Trump “repeatedly called for peace, patriotism, and respect for our men and women of law enforcement” to prevail on January 6th. As such, the courts “should rule in favor of President Trump in short order and dismiss these frivolous lawsuits.”
With the 2024 presidential elections getting ready to get underway, many are looking at the potential legal difficulties Trump might be facing and questioning how effective his campaign could be. Among others, a prosecutor in Georgia is investigating the legality of Trump and fellow conservatives who rightfully challenged the results of their election and tried to overturn the election defeat in the state.
The combination of criminal and civil suits could prevent Trump from getting on the ballot given the level they have elevated to. As it stands, he currently is appealing a decision by a federal judge in Washington who dismissed the efforts by President Trump to toss out conspiracy civil lawsuits that were filed by both lawmakers and police officers.
Then, there is the investigation that has been launched on Trump and his possession and storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago, FL estate. Documents he claims he was able to declassify and did declassify, and believes it was stored correctly. In a sort of ironic twist, President Biden is under investigation for the same thing regarding his time at the Penn Biden Center.
What’s not ironic, though, is the fact that Biden was only the Vice President at the time and could not declassify those documents. More to the point, China had an increased presence on that campus during that time and their representatives were often seen in and around this area. Add in his storage of top-level classified documents in his garage next to his Corvette, and President Biden has already dug his hole much deeper.
The time for Trump seems to be passing him by because the Justice Department has just declared open season on the former President. Even if he wants to run for office in 2024, all these potential suits won’t let him have time to campaign the right way.
