A federal judge says he's found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court and could seek officials’ prosecution for violating his orders last month to turn around planes carrying deportees to an El Salvador prison.
  • Blemmyes@lemm.ee
    1231·
    4 days ago

    Ah but you forget Donny’s infamous “who gonna stop me?” loophole.

    I’ll believe it when I see it.

        • brandon@lemmy.mlEnglish
          10·
          4 days ago

          SCOTUS’ decision re: presidential immunity does not (so far) apply to people other than the president himself. It’s also not clear that the president can pardon criminal contempt charges brought by a judge. I expect that we’ll be hearing more from SCOTUS about this in the near future…

      • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
        11·
        4 days ago

        Ah; but they didn’t say that laws don’t apply to a sitting administration.

        So don’t impeach Trump again. But jail everyone who followed his orders.

        • Anomalocaris@lemm.ee
          6·
          4 days ago

          honestly, that would be funny to see.

          send everyone to jail except trump, let him sit in the whitehouse all alone.

          except that trump will just pardon everyone so it is irrelevant.

          • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
            5·
            4 days ago

            Ah; but that’s the beauty of it.

            Trump has been doing the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” thing so that others have to scramble to keep up.

            If the courts start jailing everyone who follows his orders, someone has to fill out all that paperwork to get them released again. Meanwhile, those people go to jail too.

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        101·
        4 days ago

        You make it sound so broad. Really, it only works if they say the magic words “this is an official act,” before, during or any time after what they are doing.

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
        2·
        4 days ago

        Not exactly.

        On July 1, 2024, the Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that presidents have absolute immunity for acts committed as president within their core constitutional purview, at least presumptive immunity for official acts within the outer perimeter of their official responsibility, and no immunity for unofficial acts.

        So if they rule that something isn’t an official act, or outside of the president’s constitutional powers, they can still find it illegal. It means that the courts can effectively “pardon” the president if they rule that he was acting within the scope of his official responsibility, but it doesn’t mean that they gave their ability to prosecute if they choose to.

        Whether the president has the power to “self-pardon,” effectively giving him total immunity to the law, is another angle, but that has not been tested in court.

        Of course, Trump could simply choose to ignore the courts the same way Andrew Jackson did and it’s not clear that anything would happen to him, at least while he’s in office and is commander in chief.

  • Venia Silente@lemm.eeEnglish
    332·
    4 days ago

    Big words for nothing.

    Like, what are they gonna do, arrest them? They’d be out in four hours and countersue for billions.

    If you want a real solution, the French taught the One.

  • danc4498@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    4 days ago

    The judge said he could hold hearings and potentially refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not act to remedy the violation. If Trump’s Justice Department leadership declines to prosecute the matter, Boasberg said he will appoint another attorney to do so.

    I find this interesting. If they’re at all dependent on the Justice Dept to enforce this, nothing is going to happen. I could see the Justice Dept taking up this case causing it to slow to a crawl.

    • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
      9·
      4 days ago

      Last time the Justice Dept wrote a report saying the Trump admin were guilty of breaking the law but wouldn’t do anything and leave it up to the Congress to impeach, which didn’t happen because of Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans abdicating their responsibility to the Constitution.

    • Anomalocaris@lemm.ee
      10·
      4 days ago

      Say what you want about Trump, he is the most polite president, he’s always like “Pardon me”