army judge
Super Moderator
President Joe Biden's stance that the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity is a "dangerous precedent" is "fundamentally wrong," former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said on Newsmax Saturday.
"What this opinion did was recognize what the Founding Fathers and the framers of our Constitution understood and most people agreed for the last 230 years," Whitaker said on Newsmax's "Saturday Report."
The court, he added, had no choice but to reach its opinion on immunity for official presidential actions because of the aggression behind special counsel Jack Smith's "overreach with his prosecutorial power."
And now, the judges in Trump's criminal cases, including with his felony convictions in New York City, will need to go through the case records to determine if any of the evidence used falls under presidential immunity, said Whitaker.
"Not only does this slow down all of these cases, but it gives future presidents a chance to appeal these decisions once they raise the subject of presidential immunity," he added. "But again, this is all because of Jack Smith's significant overreach and overaggressive prosecutorial, attack against Donald Trump."
The court's ruling also is not as "revolutionary" as some would believe, Whitaker said.
"It creates the three buckets of official constitutional power that are completely immune," he commented. "There's sort of a balancing test, and then obviously unofficial acts that are not immune acts. I think it just states what the law has always been."
The opinion neither hurts or helps Trump, Whitaker added, but "it just states what the law is."
"I think that's where the left and their so-called legal experts are getting it completely wrong."
People are using "complete political hyperbole" when they claim the immunity ruling opens the door for a president to commit dangerous acts, such as ordering the deaths of political enemies, he said.
"No president could do that," Whitaker explained. "You cannot murder people just on your own whim and somehow claim that that is within your constitutional powers and protected by presidential immunity."
Meanwhile, the left has "invested so much in its lawfare strategy" against Trump in hopes of sidelining him, but that plan has backfired, he added.
"These overaggressive ways that they have tried to do that are quite frankly illegal and the Supreme Court told them as much," Whitaker said.
"What this opinion did was recognize what the Founding Fathers and the framers of our Constitution understood and most people agreed for the last 230 years," Whitaker said on Newsmax's "Saturday Report."
The court, he added, had no choice but to reach its opinion on immunity for official presidential actions because of the aggression behind special counsel Jack Smith's "overreach with his prosecutorial power."
And now, the judges in Trump's criminal cases, including with his felony convictions in New York City, will need to go through the case records to determine if any of the evidence used falls under presidential immunity, said Whitaker.
"Not only does this slow down all of these cases, but it gives future presidents a chance to appeal these decisions once they raise the subject of presidential immunity," he added. "But again, this is all because of Jack Smith's significant overreach and overaggressive prosecutorial, attack against Donald Trump."
The court's ruling also is not as "revolutionary" as some would believe, Whitaker said.
"It creates the three buckets of official constitutional power that are completely immune," he commented. "There's sort of a balancing test, and then obviously unofficial acts that are not immune acts. I think it just states what the law has always been."
The opinion neither hurts or helps Trump, Whitaker added, but "it just states what the law is."
"I think that's where the left and their so-called legal experts are getting it completely wrong."
People are using "complete political hyperbole" when they claim the immunity ruling opens the door for a president to commit dangerous acts, such as ordering the deaths of political enemies, he said.
"No president could do that," Whitaker explained. "You cannot murder people just on your own whim and somehow claim that that is within your constitutional powers and protected by presidential immunity."
Meanwhile, the left has "invested so much in its lawfare strategy" against Trump in hopes of sidelining him, but that plan has backfired, he added.
"These overaggressive ways that they have tried to do that are quite frankly illegal and the Supreme Court told them as much," Whitaker said.
