Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on Monday expressed his surprise at what he described as an “incredibly inappropriate first sentence” in Donald Trump’s filing to the U.S. Supreme Court in which the former president’s lawyers argued he should have “total immunity” for potential criminal acts committed when he was in the White House.
“This application is ‘déjà vu all over again,’” the filing from Trump’s legal team began, citing and crediting a so-called “Yogi-ism” from the late New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.
“If you were going to be snarky, they might as well have cited Yogi Bear,” Weissmann told MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez.
“I mean, that is just a bizarre way to start on something they are asking the Supreme Court,” he added.
Weissmann reminded viewers that Trump’s lawyers have essentially said “their position is that the President of the United States can kill people and as long as he hasn’t been impeached successfully, in other words impeached and convicted for it, he cannot be prosecuted.”
“So, for something this serious, that is a bizarre, really bizarre first sentence and I thnk has a real tin ear,” he added.
A three-judge D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel earlier this month ruled Trump didn’t enjoy absolute immunity as POTUS and therefore could face prosecution in the D.C. election subversion case, one of four criminal cases the Republican 2024 front-runner faces.
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