'Shattered the last hope': Columnist calls latest court ruling Trump's 'devastating blow'

The latest hit former President Donald Trump took in the federal 2020 election interference case is a "decisive turning point" in his legal struggle that spells disaster for him, wrote former conservative-turned-anti-Trump columnist Jennifer Rubin for The Washington Post on Monday.

Trump last week lost a bid to have the case thrown out on "presidential immunity" grounds.

Rubin highlighted what she called a particularly important section of the ruling in which Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote, “The Constitution’s text, structure, and history do not support that contention. No court — or any other branch of government — has ever accepted it. And this court will not so hold.

"Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”

Moreover, Rubin noted, "Chutkan also dispensed with Trump’s bogus First Amendment claims, holding that he is not being prosecuted for speech but for attempting to overthrow the election. Speech in furtherance of criminal activity is not protected, she noted."

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She also demolished Trump's claim that his impeachment in 2021 gave him "double jeopardy" protections, and rejected the idea that the laws in question were too vague for a president to understand.

And all of this comes amid a parallel decision of an appellate court dispensing with the idea Trump has immunity from civil suits for January 6.

The effect of this ruling, wrote Rubin, is "a devastating blow to Trump’s attempt to evade accountability for Jan. 6," noting that retired Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe said the ruling has “shatter[ed] the last hope of the former president for avoiding the fate of running for the presidency as a convicted felon, a position in which much of his current support in the polls is bound to dissolve.”

With these rulings in place, the law has been made clear that Trump doesn't have any shortcuts left to dodge trial — and he had been counting on that to at least stall the prosecution to after the presidential election, where he might be able to use his powers to absolve himself.

"Trump’s strategy to forestall justice by recapturing the presidency looks more and more like a pipe dream," concluded Rubin — and that development is "unalloyed good news for our democracy."