John Roberts opens door to Trump's 'revenge tour' in immunity ruling: columnist

The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to Donald Trump's promised revenge tour in a potential second term, according to an analysis.

The conservative majority ruled 6-3 to grant the former president immunity for many of his actions to overturn his 2020 election loss, but MSNBC columnist Hayes Brown said chief justice John Roberts had given Trump the green light to target his enemies for the type of politicized prosecutions of which he baselessly claims to be a victim.

“The President may discuss potential investigations and prosecutions with his Attorney General and other Justice Department officials to carry out his constitutional duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,'" Roberts wrote.

That may sound innocuous, Brown said, but the chief justice clarifies that the former president cannot be prosecuted for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority, although the indictment alleges that Trump had asked Justice Department officials to carry out "sham" investigations for an improper purpose.

"Putting those two ideas together effectively signs off on ending the last 50 years of Justice Department independence," Brown wrote. "The way then-President Richard Nixon and his attorney general, John Mitchell, used and abused the DOJ and other law enforcement bodies to shield Nixon’s allies and harass his enemies was one of the most damaging revelations of Watergate. Following Nixon’s resignation and Mitchell’s eventual prosecution and conviction, subsequent attorneys general have all strived to keep the White House at arm’s length from the day-to-day decisions regarding investigations."

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There had never been a legislative fortification protecting the DOJ from being used by the president as a political weapon, but that independence had been the result of norms and precedents that Trump ignored over the objection of officials from his first administration who would almost certainly not be invited back for a second term.

"Even Trump’s White House counsel Don McGahn issued a memo at the beginning of his term laying out the firewall between the White House staff and the Justice Department," Brown wrote. "It’s a standard that Trump’s allies, including [former Justice Department official Jeffrey] Clark, have railed against, making no bones about the fact that, if given the chance, they intend to tear it down entirely."

"If that happens, there will be little to prevent Trump from launching his promised revenge campaign against his enemies," Brown wrote.

"Given the leeway Roberts has granted for the president to order even 'sham' investigations, anyone could be subject to arbitrary probes, prompting unnecessary (and expensive) legal defenses and social stigma," he added. "It’s not absurd to imagine this resulting in the arrest and detention on made-up charges for anyone on the long list of people who’ve earned Trump’s ire."