GOP scholars put Supreme Court on notice not to 'waste its time' on Trump immunity: expert
The Supreme Court is weighing whether to review the D.C. Court of Appeals' wholesale rejection of former President Donald Trump's claim to immunity from prosecution in Jack Smith's federal election conspiracy case — but the pressure mounting against them not to do so is hardly partisan, former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal told MSNBC's Ari Melber on Wednesday. A number of prominent Republican legal experts are urging them to stay out of it too.
Katyal made this point in response to discussion of former Attorney General Eric Holder, who said of the Trump cases, "We can't have this notion that there's a two-tiered justice system. I laugh at that when I hear Donald Trump and his supporters talk about a two-tiered system of justice. That's not even close to the truth."
"Your response to that and anything else in this new Jack Smith filing?" asked Melber, himself an attorney by trade.
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"Eric Holder is absolutely right," said Katyal. "I had the privilege of serving under him. That's how he ran the Justice Department. No attorney general should think otherwise."
"I think the other important thing, Ari, is that I just learned that also there was a very powerful brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court as well today by former Republican Senator Jack Danforth, who was Clarence Thomas' chief sponsor in the hearings, by Judge Luttig, a very conservative judge, Larry Thompson, President Bush's deputy attorney general, the number two," Katyal continued. "They all said, Supreme Court, don't hear this case. What Donald Trump is trying to do is undermine our democracy, they agree with Eric Holder that Trump is seeking a two-tiered system of justice where he gets something special for himself. They say that has never been the rule and the Supreme Court shouldn't waste its time trying to say otherwise."
As for how it might all work out, he continued, "I think all indications are the Supreme Court at this point won't hear this case. They obviously can, but I think that the weight of the evidence, the gravity here is very much against that, particularly when you have three very prominent judges on the D.C. Court of Appeals, including a conservative one, saying to the Supreme Court, no president has absolute immunity."
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