CREW statement on presidential immunity decision
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling that Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for official acts while in office, CREW President Noah Bookbinder, a former federal corruption prosecutor, released the following statement:
“Today’s decision is dangerous and devastating. Donald Trump’s attempts to claim absolute immunity do not hold up to even the barest scrutiny, but they have now largely been validated by our nation’s highest court. This threatens our system of democratic checks and balances by placing presidents above the rule of law, as well as throwing the future of Trump’s federal criminal cases into question.
Despite this disastrous decision, Trump will likely still face charges for some of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his incitement of the insurrection. The District Court should move forward as quickly as possible to determine where immunity does and doesn’t apply in order to try the case this year.
Accountability cannot wait. Congress must immediately enact legislation to prevent any president who engaged in insurrection against the Constitution—which two Colorado courts determined Trump did, and which the Supreme Court declined to absolve him of—from holding office again. The Court itself must acknowledge its ongoing ethics crisis and ensure that any justice who hears a case despite having a conflict of interest, as Justices Alito and Thomas appear to have done in this instance, faces consequences for violating the Court’s Code of Conduct and the law.”