The Legal Fallout of Trump’s Immunity
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
In the last episode of our series The Law According to Trump, we try to figure out what it all means. In the months since SCOTUS gave Trump even more immunity than he asked for, the people prosecuting the former president are finding themselves in uncharted waters. How are they doing?
Slate’s Jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl talks with host Andrea Bernstein about how Jack Smith has tweaked the election interference cases, as well as how Trump’s legal approach has changed since the Supreme Court ruled for him in Trump v. U.S..
Listen to Andrea Bernstein on We Don’t Talk About Leonard, Trump Inc., and Will Be Wild. Andrea is also the author of American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Law According to Trump from Amicus Slate's podcast about the courts and the law. |
| 0:13.5 | I'm Andrea Bernstein, sitting in for Dahlia Lithwick for the fifth and final episode of our series |
| 0:18.9 | about how Donald Trump deploys the law, how he's |
| 0:22.4 | used lawyers and lawsuits, and sometimes even judges to enhance his brand, his money, and his power. |
| 0:30.9 | This week on the show, perhaps the apex of the law according to Trump. The immunity case and its fallout. |
| 0:43.5 | Remember July 1st? |
| 0:45.2 | The day the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Trump v. United States. |
| 0:49.7 | This is the big one we've been waiting for. |
| 0:51.4 | In one of its most anticipated rulings of the year, |
| 0:54.6 | we have word that the Supreme Court has issued a ruling on the extent of presidential immunity |
| 0:59.3 | from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during the tenure of |
| 1:05.4 | President Trump. The justices say a president now has, quote, absolute immunity from prosecution when it comes to so-called |
| 1:13.0 | official acts. Today's six to three decision hailed by Mr. Trump as a, quote, big win for our |
| 1:19.3 | Constitution and democracy. The six-three ruling was split along ideological lines, and it will |
| 1:24.8 | most likely delay Trump's federal election subversion trial until after |
| 1:29.3 | the November election. |
| 1:31.2 | And here on Amicus, on July 1st, the last day of this past Supreme Court term, Dahlia was already |
| 1:38.4 | clear on the ramifications of a decision that was much more sweeping than most people imagined. |
| 1:45.0 | This is going to get covered as a Donald Trump story. |
| 1:48.7 | This is not a Donald Trump story. |
| 1:50.5 | This is a separation of power story and fundamentally a structural change to democracy as we understand it. |
| 1:57.4 | That is true. |
... |
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