Court Rules Trump Isn't Immune From Criminal Prosecution

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An appeals court ruled against Trump’s claim that he is immune from state criminal prosecution and ordered him to turn over his tax returns.

The AP reported:
A federal appeals court in New York says President Donald Trump’s tax returns can be turned over to state criminal investigators.

….

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. sought the records in a broader probe that includes payments made to buy the silence of two women who claim they had affairs with the president before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump’s lawyer told the three-judge appeals panel this month that Trump is immune from state criminal law even if he shoots someone because he’s president.

There are two significant points to this ruling. Trump lost again in federal court on keeping his tax returns secret. He now has to appeal to the US Supreme Court and hope that the Supreme Court takes the case. Legal experts think that it is questionable whether the Supreme Court will take a state-level case that is based on a long-settled question of the federal and state separation of powers.

The bigger takeaway is that the court rejected Trump’s argument that he is immune from state-level criminal prosecution. The Trump administration has claimed that the presidency gives Trump blanket immunity from prosecution at all levels of government. This theory of unlimited executive immunity flies in the face of the Constitution and attempts to turn the president into a bulletproof king.

This is the second major ruling that Trump has lost in relation to his tax returns in less than a month.

The court ruled that the presidency can’t save Trump, while the DOJ policy is not to prosecute a sitting president, nothing is stopping any state from trying to criminally prosecution and lock up Donald J. Trump.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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