Absolute Immunity? Presidents Don't Have It.

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected President Trump's claim that he is "categorically immune" from having his pre-presidential financial records investigated by a New York grand jury. But in a second decision on the House's request for similar information, the court questioned the breadth of congressional authority. Americans, almost certainly, will not see the president's taxes before Election Day.

This episode: campaign correspondent Scott Detrow, White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe, and national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Melanie in Charlotte. I thought everyone could do with a moment of
0:04.9	tranquility.
0:09.9	This podcast was recorded on 210 Eastern on Thursday, July 9th.
0:15.5	Remember things will have changed by the time you hear this. Everyone be safe and
0:21.2	be kind. Here's the show.
0:25.2	Oh, that's so nice. I appreciate that I definitely need some tranquility.
0:31.1	Tranquility now. Serenity now. All of it. Hey there, it's the Imperial Politics
0:35.8	podcast. I'm Scott Detrello, I cover the presidential campaign. I'm Ayeshirasco, I
0:39.9	cover the White House. And I'm Carrie Johnson, National Justice Correspondent.
0:43.8	Okay, so the US Supreme Court ended its term today with a big decision rolled
0:48.5	72 that New York prosecutor has the constitutional right to subpoena President
0:52.9	Trump's tax returns. A second decision said Congress doesn't have that right
0:57.1	at least in this moment under these circumstances. So Carrie, let us let's
1:01.2	start with this though at a high level. The court found the president of the
1:05.1	United States does not have absolute immunity from investigation while in office.
1:09.3	That's right. Scott, in a 72 decision like you said, Chief Justice John Roberts
1:14.3	basically determined that the cranjury in New York State have the ability to
1:20.7	issue a subpoena for President Trump's personal financial records, including
1:24.6	almost 10 years of his tax returns that rejected an argument from Trump's
1:30.8	personal lawyers and the solicitor general of the Justice Department that
1:34.9	would have allowed Trump to basically use the White House as a shield for any of
1:39.6	those requests for his personal information. And just to be clear, this is his
	...

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