A former federal prosecutor was astounded on Wednesday after a court cleared a "runway" to sue President Donald Trump.
Glenn Kirschner, host of the "Justice Matters" podcast, said during a new episode of "The Legal Breakdown," a podcast that Kirschner co-hosts with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, that a recent ruling from District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., could "clear the runway" for Trump to testify about his actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection. The civil lawsuit was filed by Democrats and law enforcement officials who contended that Trump incited the mob to storm the Capitol.
Kirschner noted that the ruling found Trump's actions were not part of his official duties as president and could create an "atmospheric precedent" for other cases involving Trump's conduct that day.
"This is a really important development, obviously in the civil case, but potentially even in the future," Kirschner said. "If, and this is a big if, a future Department of Justice, once the rule of law comes back into the light of day, decides to try to reinstate the criminal prosecution for those four felony charges on which Donald Trump stood indicted until he got elected the second time."
"If they want to try to reopen that case ... we're going to be right back in court litigating once again the question of whether what Donald Trump did on Jan. 6 should enjoy presidential immunity because these were official acts of a president or whether they were the acts of a private person, the acts of a candidate trying desperately to retain power after losing an election that do not enjoy presidential immunity," he added.
"So, I think this is important both in the moment in the civil suit, and it may very well become very important in the future if the case is rebrought," Kirschner said.