On Politics

Thu Apr 25 2024

Sudiksha Kochi | Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter

@KochiSudiksha

Hey OnPolitics readers! During Supreme Court arguments thick with references to hypothetical murders, military coups and bribery, Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday aimed for the stars – and the deli counter.

Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked the justices to rule that former presidents are immune from prosecution for any official act they commit in office, with a wide definition of what makes for an official act, USA TODAY's Dan Morrison reported. Several justices dug into extreme examples of what might possibly constitute official conduct: Ordering the assassination of political rivals? Military takeovers?

🥪 Alito asked Justice Department attorney Michael Dreeben if a former president should be left to the mercy of prosecutors, noting an old saying about grand juries: That the bodies would indict a ham sandwich if a prosecutor asked them to. Alito asked Dreeben if he knew of a single case in which a federal prosecutor had asked a grand jury to indict a suspect "and the grand jury refused to do so."

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✅ Donald Trump is trying to quash federal charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election after his bitter loss to President Joe Biden . Without sweeping immunity, a president "will always be concerned, and even paralyzed, by the prospect of wrongful prosecution and retaliation after they leave office," Trump alleged on Truth Social Sunday.