The concept currently pushed by Donald Trump and his legal team of absolute immunity for presidents drew opposition recently from outspoken actor Mark Hamill of “Star Wars” fame.
Though their precise definitions of the concept have varied, the idea from Trump and his team is that the ex-president should be legally protected from even the possibility of a current criminal case from federal authorities dealing with his post-2020 election pushes to stay in power.
Trump groups his ploys during that period with his official duties as president, though carrying them to fruition would have undone the collective impact of tens of millions of documented votes for Joe Biden. And though Trump now claims that campaigning was over as he made those post-election moves, his campaign-style interest in securing another four years as president seemed obvious.
“You don’t need a corrupt Supreme Court’s ruling to know absolute immunity would make a president a king/dictator. Now it’s up to us to channel our rage, disgust & disappointment to achieve record turnout & make sure we win by a far larger margin than last time,” Hamill wrote on X (Twitter).
He was speaking after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear further arguments on Trump’s claims of legal immunity drawn from the mere fact of once serving as president — which pushed out even further the anticipated trial amid these proceedings. It was originally scheduled for this month, but now, Trump’s first criminal trial will instead be in his New York case alleging the falsification of business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 elections. It also looks like Trump’s trial on criminal charges related to his handling of government documents could easily happen later this year, since recent proposals from both the prosecution and the defense had trial taking place before the 2024 general election.
Image: Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons license
