Imagine a King's Counsel for Boris Johnson is before the Appeal's Court to plead that Mr. Johnson cannot be held for crimes because he was the prime minister when the crimes occurred, and that his position as a member of parliament and prime minister gives him total immunity from prosecution. One of the judges sitting on the court asks a hypothetical question: If Johnson's claim to total immunity is true, it means that he could have asked the SAS to murder the leader of the opposition with no consequences. The KC then says: Yes!
Obviously, I am transferring the question from what is going on in the US. In the UK and most countries members of parliament are only protected from prosecution for slander...that's because, under the UK system, there is no criminal immunity it is a fundamental tenet of the British Constitution that all are equal before the law (and we don't even have a written constitution).
Our American cousins are testing these waters right now with Trump. He and his legal team have now decided that ex-Preisdent Trump is immune forever to everything. He even tried to get his conviction for sexual assault (actually rape) overturned because he was a President at one point (the rape occurred years ago, the court case has been going on for years), and he was found guilty (in civil court) long after he was no longer president. He lost that appeal spectacularly just two days ago.
What is truly interesting for an outsider, is to consider what is the real game. Trump's team's objective is to delay, obfuscate and muddy the waters to give a conservative-leaning Supreme Court the ability to reject the entire premise behind the Court of Appeals's current actions (even the members of the Court of Appeals have questioned their right to hear the case). The entire show is to delay the entire "criminal liability" issue until after the elections. It makes perfect sense. Polls after polls have shown that Trump's support from independents (which is between 20% and 40% of the electorate), collapses if he is found guilty of a crime. This whole show is not about right, wrong, guilty or not, it's about winning the next election cycle. The conservative movement (or what's left of it) is tied to Trump willingly or otherwise. They are fully aware that their movement is in trouble, but they will solve that after the elections. Right now the objective is to give the Supreme Court the cover to reject hearing the case. The lawyer representing Trump did something spectacularly stupid, but it's just for show. Watch the real game, because Trump's lawyers will not bring things to the Court to show that it doesn't have jurisdiction. When Trump loses, the Supreme Court will not decide against Trump, they will simply say, that the Court of Appeal did not have the right to hear the case...therefore, giving Trump the electoral pass he needs.
Over the past 40 years, the US conservative movement has successfully gerrymandered the electoral map so that for a Democratic contender to win the Presidency, he/she needs about 56% of the popular vote to win sufficient electors. My guess is that the 2024 GOP election machine will be even better run, to ensure that even then the will of the people will be thwarted.
Here in the United Kingdom, such a question would never be asked by anyone, because in the UK, all are equal before the law. Our American cousins are trying hard to prove that in America, the law is otherwise.
Comments