The Supreme Court ruling on former President Donald Trump's presidential immunity claim — which Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued turns the office into a kingship empowered to assassinate political rivals — effectively kills the federal court cases against him, one legal analyst argued Monday.
ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl told viewers Monday morning that despite the majority's quibbling on absolute immunity — a decision on specifics was kicked down to a lower court — they had handed an out-and-out victory for Trump.
"This effectively grants Donald Trump blanket immunity because it makes it ... impossible for a trial to go forward," Karl said. "Either in the classified documents case, because this is also at stake there, and the Jan. 6th case."
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In the election interference case, Trump stands accused of orchestrating a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election by propping up slates of fake electors in swing states he lost, attempting to bully the Justice department into verifying election fraud allegations and then inciting a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In the classified documents case, Trump stands accused of violating the Espionage Act by improperly storing classified information in his Florida social club, Mar-a-Lago.
Trump — convicted of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid ahead of his successful 2016 presidential election — pleaded not guilty in both.
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His legal team have since mounted a campaign of delay as Trump could effectively kill both federal cases should he reclaim the White House in 2025.
Those tactics include a motion to dismiss the classified documents case on presidential immunity grounds.
Karl points to Sotomayor's damning dissent in which she raises the specter of Democracy's demise: "It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law."
The Washington correspondent argues that while the court did not grant Trump the blanket immunity he sought, they gave him its equivalent in the form of time.
"It's going to take time that simply isn't there," Karl said. "And you have an election coming up...Donald Tump has made it abundantly clear that if he wins this election, this case goes away."
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