M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
“This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin,” the filing reads.
In a statement, Trump’s presidential campaign criticized Smith for the appeals go-around. “There is absolutely no reason to rush this sham to trial except to injure President Trump and tens of millions of his supporters."
If the justices decide Trump is immune from prosecution, Kirschner fears it all but assures his absolution with the D.C. election subversion case accusing him of inciting a massive crowd on Jan. 6, 2021 to riot at the Capitol Building to prevent the certification of the election.
"I guess it's only our democracy at stake," he said with a bit of sardonic undertones. "You know, just small potatoes."
But Kirschner then detailed just how bleak such a ruling could be.
"To put it indelicately, a president would order his political opponents assassinated," he said.
Deciding that Trump is all but untouchable with the law, would also have the Supreme Court relinquishing its power.
"If the Supreme Court justices want to abandon their responsibility, their honor, their ethics to interpret the Constitution in a way that can literally be found in the text of the Constitution, then they can do whatever they want."
"They can act in a completely lawless manner and do a favor for an aspiring dictator like Donald Trump."
Kirschner then stops himself, saying, "They won't do it."
Because if they do, he continues "they'll be delivering the power of the judiciary to the power of a criminal president."
He believes Trump or any other president cannot be above the law.
"They will literally be putting a criminal president above and beyond the reach of the law and the Supreme Court," he said. "The Supreme Court loves its supreme status. The last thing that they're going to do is hand it over to a criminal president and make themselves, the judiciary, a second class branch of government. It's not going to happen."
