A legal analyst slammed the "MAGA Chief Justice" of the Supreme Court in a new Substack essay on Thursday, arguing that he has created a "recipe for disaster" by expanding presidential immunity.
Lisa Graves, an award-winning investigative researcher, wrote in a new essay for the Legal AF newsletter that Chief Justice John Roberts' opinion giving President Donald Trump broad immunity has created a dangerous situation for Americans, one that has become increasingly so following the murder of a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis named Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Graves said she recently revisited the opinion following the Jan. 6 anniversary. She described it as "unhinged" from the Constitution itself, and argued that it allowed Trump to turn the Department of Justice into his personal law firm by appointing his former defense lawyers, Todd Blanche and others, to key posts.
"It is genuinely disgusting to watch how these appointees have defiled the Justice Department," she wrote.
Graves added that the ruling portends poorly for Americans, given some of the seemingly lawless actions the Trump administration has undertaken recently.
"This is a recipe for disaster, for Americans and the world–an open invitation to the kinds of war crimes we have already seen, including the deadly attacks on drowning men whose boats were wrecked by our missiles off the coast of Venezuela," she wrote. "That same lawlessness is reflected in Trump’s unprecedented actions last week: ordering the seizure of the leader of Venezuela, claiming that the U.S. can simply take said country’s oil, and–as of this week’s Senate briefing–claiming a right to put any revenue into offshore bank accounts he would control, while cutting refining deals with U.S. oil companies. In other words, this is what Senator Chris Murphy called 'an insane plan.'"
"And let’s not forget the ongoing onslaught of American communities by armed, masked, poorly trained Trump loyalists targeting immigrants and citizens with aggression," she added. "We have seen numerous acts of violence and profound disrespect that Trump and his minions have blessed as acceptable and even great, while disparaging any dissent."
