President Donald Trump’s behavior in the runup to, and on, Jan. 6 was outrageous: That much is beyond doubt. Yet Monday’s Supreme Court ruling guarantees that special counsel Jack Smith’s effort to put Trump on trial for that can at best only rattle for years through the courts.
The high court declared (6-3) that presidents enjoy “absolute” immunity from prosecution for “official acts”; it’d take months at least to get final rulings that some of Trump’s actions back then weren’t official acts, and the decision clearly puts the kibosh on some of Smith’s key arguments in his larger case claiming that Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election.
In short, this is going nowhere before Election Day, and then the voters will have their say — after which the Justice Department will likely have to drop the charges.
Plus, Congress already has had its say, in the 2021 impeachment and Senate trial over Jan. 6 charges.
The best course now would be for Smith to drop the case altogether and for prosecutors, and their Democratic patrons, to swear off the use of further lawfare to take down political foes once and for all.
It’s not “lawfare” when you’re prosecuting an actual criminal. And we still have juries as the ultimate guard against oppression. If a unanimous jury finds you guilty, you can be sure you’re guilty.