The U.S. Supreme Court has opened the door to some "outlandish scenarios" that would horrify the nation's founders, according to a former high-ranking Justice Department official.
The conservative majority's 6-3 decision to grant immunity to Donald Trump and jeopardize the criminal cases against him robbed some of the cheer from of this year's Fourth of July celebration, former deputy attorney general Harry Litman told MSNBC, and called to mind another holiday.
"It is July Fourth, but for immunity, every day now is Halloween," Litman said. "These seem like outlandish scenarios, but what has been stopping Trump so far, there were norms, strongly in place. He ran roughshod over them, and the ultimate barriers would be criminal conduct, and the Supreme Court just said don't worry about those at all, and as you said in your setup, it is what he said he will do, so I think there is a lot of cause for concern."
Trump tried to install a loyalist as attorney general in the waning days of his presidency to investigate baseless claims of election fraud in a bid to remain in power despite winning the election, and Litman warned he would do worse if given another term.
"Now he can't do it alone, he needs the help of an attorney general," Litman said. "But certainly his last term showed that there is no absence of henchmen happy to trade a very prestigious post for doing what he says and just trying to keep the tracks from being set, so it is a bona fide concern. There are so many bona fide concerns now that we – that couldn't be, not in America. I think that day has passed now."
"His No. 1 goal, he said, might be to prosecute his enemies," Litman added. "That does mean DOJ. Presidents since Watergate have steered very far clear and they haven't needed criminal penalties to do it. It just has been such a very sharp line in the sand as far as norms go, no one's come within miles of it. Trump went past it and erased those completely. Now there is nothing on the other side, not even criminal violations. I don't see what would stop him except the good faith of people in the DOJ to say, 'Well, if you do that, I'll resign,' but there will be somebody else in the waiting when one DOJ person resigns to do his dirty business, it seems to me."
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