Donald Trump's potential conviction for election subversion is now essentially guaranteed, according to Laurence H. Tribe, one of America's leading constitutional scholars.
Trump has consistently argued that he is protected by "presidential immunity" from any charges in connection with the 2020 election, because he was still president at the time of the allegedly illegal offenses. But that argument was shot down Friday, both in a civil case and then by Judge Chutkan in Special Counsel Jack Smith's prosecution in D.C.
After the civil decision, Tribe made a prediction:
"This is why we can confidently expect Judge Chutkan to reject Mr. Trump’s immunity defense in his DC trial for criminally trying to overturn the election and seize power, a trial in which I fully expect him to be convicted, thereby losing much of his current support in the polls," Tribe wrote early Friday.
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After Chutkan's decision was handed down, Tribe took a victory lap on social media.
"The prediction I made 2 hours ago proved right more quickly than I expected: Trump is now headed directly to conviction in DC for corruptly plotting to upend the Constitution’s system for transferring the executive power to the winner of the quadrennial presidential election," Tribe wrote later Friday.
Tribe is a frequent critic of Trump, previously claiming the ex-president's favorite law professor "doesn't know what he's talking about."
The development was also picked up by Newsweek early Saturday.