In a filing to the Supreme Court, Special Counsel Jack Smith argued that a stay should be denied and that Trump’s immunity claim is a threat to democracy.
Smith wrote:
The conduct alleged in the Indictment, if proved at trial, represents a concerted effort to violate the Constitution’s Term-in-Office Clause, see U.S. Const. Art. II, § 1, Cl. 1 (elected President “shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years”), and the President’s duty to “take Care that
the Laws be faithfully executed,” id., § 3.
The proposition that a former President is immune from federal criminal liability for conduct that would overturn his electoral defeat contravenes bedrock constitutional principles and threatens democracy itself.
Applicant never acknowledges the constitutional cost of insulating a former President from criminal accountability for that conduct.
Trump’s claim if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of it would mean that any incumbent president who lost an election could decide not to leave with no consequences. If a president wanted to rig an election, under Trump’s claim of immunity, they could do so with no consequences.
Giving a former president unlimited immunity would destroy the safety net that protects American democracy.
Trump’s immunity claim is a danger to the principles that the nation was founded on.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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