Challenge to Trump candidacy with 14th Amendment will likely go before the Supreme Court: former FBI counsel
Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann predicted that the suit against Donald Trump's candidacy will likely end up in the Supreme Court.
The issue is something that conservative former Judge Michael Luttig and Harvard Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe wrote for The Atlantic last month that the 14th Amendment should bar the former president from office.
Based on their research, Trump's Jan. 6 complicity and election interference plots should stop him from ever taking office. The question will be whether a far-right Supreme Court will agree.
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"You have Luttig putting it all on the line, making this argument, putting secretaries of state on the spot to answer questions about whether they'll look at the 14th Amendment," MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace explained. "How do you think that is going to shake out, again, in the context of this extraordinary moment where Trump is far and away the front-runner for the Republican nomination?"
Weissmann looked at it from two different perspectives, both from the Trump defense and those like Luttig.
"Mark Meadows has ended up with an extremely good and effective and ethical lawyer, but I do know that for many defense lawyers, there are two issues," he began, first explaining Trump's representation. As for the Supreme Court, "this is sort of previewing for our viewers: There are issues that will end up in the Supreme Court, such as presidential immunity. That's going to be true for the Georgia case. It's going to be true for the D.C. case. And the real issue is whether the Supreme Court is going to decide those rapidly."
He said it becomes a wild card because Judge Tanya Chutkan picked March 4 as the trial date. It's possible that the Supreme Court could step in to delay the trial to hear other legal issues. There's also the matter that this is the first time in history that a president is facing federal indictments as well as other state issues. That's why voices like Judge Luttig will be important, said Weissmann.
When asked if Weissmann agreed that the 14th Amendment would go to the Supreme Court, he agreed emphatically.
"I do, I do think that," he said.
"Wow," Wallace replied.
"The big issue is whether they will issue a stay of any of the trials or exactly what their time frame" will be, Weissmann continued. "Of course, the Supreme Court is not known for being very rapid in deciding matters. But they have, for instance, obviously. Bush v. Gore being a notable example."
Trump raged after the editorial from Tribe and Lutting garnered news attention. He claimed the constitutional amendment was a joke. A president takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, which includes all of its amendments.
"Like Election Interference, it is just another 'trick' being used by the Radical Left Communists, Marxists, and Fascists, to again steal an Election that their candidate, the WORST, MOST INCOMPETENT, & MOST CORRUPT President in U.S. history, is incapable of winning in a Free and Fair Election," Trump wrote. "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
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