Appearing on MSNBC on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner explained that the Supreme Court will be hard-pressed to ignore a lower court ruling that Donald Trump did in fact engage in an act of insurrection.
Now the nation's highest court has agreed to rule on whether the former president can be banned from running for office based upon provisions contained within the 14th Amendment.
Speaking with host Katie Phang, Kirschner noted that the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed a lower court finding that Trump took part in an insurrection, which should box in the Supreme Court.
"There's a mantra," he began, "The mantra is that the appellate courts will defer, they give great deference, to factual findings by the trial court and they will only disregard them if they are clearly erroneous or without record support."
"In other words, the trial court judge just made it up," he elaborated. "Judge Sarah Wallace did not make it up; she heard from fact witnesses, expert witnesses, as you say, she conducted a full and fair trial, at which Donald Trump's lawyers represented Donald Trump's interests. So, he certainly enjoyed a healthy dose of the due process."
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"Let's hope the Supreme Court recognizes that they owe great deference to the trial court's determination, and of course, the trial court determined Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed those factual findings," he added. "I would argue that the Supreme Court is stuck with those factual findings."
"It doesn't mean they won't find other ways around it," he cautioned, "but you know, let's follow the rules of appellate practice that way we always have."
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