Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann named what could lead to the end of U.S. democracy “as we know it” after Donald Trump’s legal team argued before the Supreme Court that the former president had “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for any official acts he committed while in office.
Weissmann appeared Sunday on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” after justices heard the claim last week as it relates to the former president’s federal election interference case.
The ex-prosecutor pointed to earlier comments on the MSNBC panel by former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who noted four justices “really rejecting” the absolutely immunity claim but questioned where Chief Justice John Roberts stands on the argument.
“I mean, I know it sounds like hyperbole but I think your opening is so correct that we are — essentially, as Neal put it — one vote away from sort of the end of democracy as we know it with checks and balances,” Weissmann said.
“And to say it’s an imperial presidency that would be created is, it’s frankly saying it would be a king. He would be criminally immune. And that is what is so shocking is how close we are, and we are really on the razor’s edge of that kind of result. But for the chief justice.”
Weissmann, earlier in his remarks, said it’s “important to remember” that the court already gave Trump “the win that he was seeking”: a delay in his D.C. criminal trial.
“So going into this, this was all upside for him,” he said.
“I mean, I think he had to be thinking, I’m making this really outlandish argument with ramifications that couldn’t possibly be squared with the text and history — the text of the Constitution or the history of the presidency.”
He added that it’d be “all upside” for Trump if the court actually took a bite of the claim, adding that it was “frankly shocking” that justices were actually taking it seriously.
You can check out more from the “Inside with Jen Psaki” panel below.