Former President Donald Trump has spent the night ranting on his personal social media site about everything from a recent piece in New York Magazine to the final report of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.
In the latter, nested in the nonsequiturs, was the claim: "NUMBER ONE (sic), as President, I have total Immunity (sic). Number two, I did nothing wrong."
The committee issued 845 pages discussing all of the evidence that Trump did something wrong.
In the claim that he has immunity as a president, the claim likely won't work out in court.
Former White House Counsel for Richard Nixon, John Dean, called it false.
"Of course he has total immunity. It’s the 'Nixon doctrine' - meaning when the president does it that means it’s not illegal!" said Dean.
Interestingly, there is a doctrine of sovereign immunity that the U.S. adopted from English law protecting a sovereign or state from criminal prosecution, but it has fairly narrow parameters around it. It only applies to decisions that a president makes as president. So, a policy decision or military action isn't something that can draw lawsuits against Trump personally.
That's not the case, however, when it comes to things Trump did personally. Jan. 6 and all of the things that surrounded the 2020 election weren't policies enacted by a president but the behavior of a desperate political candidate who'd lost. As a former president, he has no immunity, as NBC News wrote last month. There's no shield from prosecution granted by the Justice Department as he did with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
To make matters worse, a judge has already made it clear that Trump has no immunity.
“If Former President Trump disrupted the certification of the electoral vote count, as Plaintiffs allege here, such actions would not constitute executive action in defense of the Constitution. For these reasons, the Court concludes that Former President Trump is not immune from monetary damages in this suit,” Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote.
It's possible Trump knows this, and that's the reason for the posting frenzy over the past week.
Trump's full statement is below:
"Very interesting, because until recently the political Hacks and Thugs of the highly partisan January 6th Unselect Committee were seldom talking about your favorite President, me, as it related to the PROTEST on Election Fraud. NUMBER ONE, as President, I have total Immunity. Number two, I did nothing wrong. Then the Committee members, mostly the same sleaze that pushed the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, started saying that “Trump” did it. Even Shifty Schiff got into the act again. SAD!!!"
