One of America's foremost constitutional law experts drew on his decades-long experience to arrive at a "duh" conclusion as the political class discusses potential indictments for former President Donald Trump.
Tribe, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, taught constitutional law for 50 years and has argued three-dozen cases before the United States Supreme Court.
"Maybe too obvious, but it’s STUPID to keep saying 'Prosecuting a former president is something we just don’t do.' The REASON we don’t is that former presidents haven’t launched insurrections or attempted criminal coups! That’s WHY there’s no precedent for prosecuting them. Duh," he explained.
Tribe's former students include Chief Justice John Roberts, Attorney General Merrick Garland, House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-MD), and White House chief of staff Ron Klain, among many others. His textbook on the Constitution is also used in law schools from coast to coast.
Tribe noted a seven-hour gap in the White House call records on Jan. 6, which he described as a "smoking gun."
Absolutely right. This 7.5-hour erasure is itself a smoking gunhttps://twitter.com/theplumlinegs/status/1508819191419260938\u00a0\u2026— Laurence Tribe (@Laurence Tribe) 1648578950
Good point!https://twitter.com/omgno2trump/status/1508815976539865094\u00a0\u2026— Laurence Tribe (@Laurence Tribe) 1648577773
On Tuesday, Tribe also explained why he says it was illegal for Clarence Thomas to refuse to recuse himself from cases involving his wife, Ginny Thomas.
This “leave the families alone” line is badly misplaced in the context of Ginny Thomas’ 1/6 involvement, which makes Justice Thomas’ failure to recuse from these cases illegal under 28 USC secs 455(b)(4) & 455(b)(5)(iii) & 455(c), all focusing on a justice’s spouse’s conduct. https://t.co/1rliNANkTw
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) March 29, 2022
Tribe also had harsh words for Republican senators.
It\u2019s hard to think of a single positive thing to say about Senator Rand Paul. Right up there with Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Lindsay Graham. Five peas in a rotten pod as far as I can tell.https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/29/rand-paul-senate-gop-ukraine-russia-00021124\u00a0\u2026— Laurence Tribe (@Laurence Tribe) 1648576284
NOW WATCH: Bob Woodward: Unlikely that 'telephone addict' Trump didn’t call anyone for 7 hours during Jan. 6
Bob Woodward: Unlikely that 'telephone addict' Trump didn’t call anyone for 7 hours during Jan. 6www.youtube.com
