‘Recipe for disaster’: Neal Katyal breaks down Trump’s circular immunity argument

Posted on by MSNBC

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell speaks with MSNBC legal analysts Neal Katyal and Andrew Weissmann and Katyal breaks down – step by step – how we got from Donald Trump’s impeachment to Trump now attempting to argue he should have absolute immunity because he is a former president.
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43Comments

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  5. 5
    @eric2500

    If presidents have cosmic powers and immunity for life I am looking forward to President Biden appointing 20 justices to the SC, confiscating all of DJT's properties, and giving Texas back to Mexico!

  11. 11
    @liannebedard5521

    Is there a prize…a lawyers’ Oscar of some kind…for inspired commentary? If not, I hereby suggest the Katayal trophy for best summation in a general public forum.

  15. 15
    @user-zo7ud5ld8l

    I wish Neal would go to court and give that same summation to the judge. Just like that. Maybe then they would see him for what he is. So would the courts

  16. 16
    @mgm48345

    He is a Putin puppet. Like Mussolini was to Hitler. He deserves the same ending. As an Australian watching America from afar, it is blatantly obvious that Trump is a traitor. USA has about 90 million to many rednecks.

  21. 21
    @mickgyver1068

    If it covers events "Leading up to the 2016 Election,"
    Trump would have Zero presidential immunity for
    his election interference crimes, aided by his BFF:
    Russian War Criminal "Vlad the Poisoner" Putin.

  22. 22
    @markwilger3488

    Who does the audio editing? It’s terrible. When the sound of someone taking notes has the same volume as the guest speaker, someone isn’t paying attention!

  27. 27
    @madhavyu

    This is why Neal Katyal is brilliant. He should be the next Supreme Court nominee – he would run circles around that fraud and grifter Clarence Thomas.

  30. 30
    @jpr1370

    trump and putin together in the past 8 year have done tremendous real world damage to the US Constitution.
    The Florida Espionage Case where trump stole documents in a c atastropic US national Security Breach is not a constitutional question and is therefore much less important. Although I will say a whole lot of people did a whole lot less to damage US National Security – and it cost them their lives. Now Judge Cannon is complicit in that breach. The key cases are
    1) unconditional absolute immunity. The damage is – that it even came up. The damage is that the case must be decided. But this case is valuable because it will force politically motivative judges and justices to go on the public record where they stand on it. And that is the value of this case. We shall see what Lenard Leo as point man on the right wing junta quest to take over America through the US judiciary – bought them. And that need to go on the public record. In the immunity Leo got in the same boart with putin and got rowing in the same direction with putin – in their quest to preserve trump as viable. putin through the Clairmont Institute – the russia propaganda outlet in the US where insurrection John Eastman the American face of the architected fake electors scheme.
    2) the 14th Amendment case. Can this one is critical SCOTUS has to tread carefully here because the Insurrection was architected – the Fake electors scheme architected to game weakness russia US constitutional scholars identified in the US Contistution – that will be continue to be explored and exploited ad infinitum – until coup succeeds down this path. It centers on the Jan 6 Joint Session of Congress – where the Legislative has check on the Executive. This is no bookkeeping session. In this Session Congress chooses who is next POTUS. The purpose of this session for Congress to have Veto power of the Election to stop nakedly unfit people from office of POTUS. It is the Ounce of Prevent Session to the Impeachment Pound of Cure Session. The is why putin targeted Jan 6. He informs trump on the evening of Dec 18 and 19 and then at 1:42 AM trump tweeted for people to go to DC on Jan6. Here the damage is done. And it is difficult to fix.
    The other damage putin and trump did is expose the fact that in office – protect by unconditional immunity in the Constitution, Armed with the Unconditional Presidential Pardon – ALL sitting presidents are in all practical terms – Emperor of the USA. trump proved Impeachment is no practical check – other than the public drama of it. But in practical terms it is irrelevant. Why? Any truly corrupt sitting president – will simply ignore any judgement to remove him from office.
    And that is why in Dec 2016 I wrote to all members of the US senate – everyday for 2 weeks to beg them to stop trump from gaining office. Because what did y'all think Russia if you're listening ….. What do you think that meant ?

  33. 33
    @bobbiefrazer1249

    Neil asks , "What kind of government would permit this 7-fold argument?"… Well… The US government has permitted it for the last eight years… And for half a decade before he ran for office… With the help of Putin and Russian intelligence!!! So… What kind of government do we Have???

  38. 38
    @alwa6954

    Neal's assessment is accurate and shows how ridiculous Trump's claims are. But that won't stop MAGA. Like all fascist movements, they are defined by and thrive on the ridiculous. We can only hope that US institutions and laws are enough to stand up to this because the American electorate may not be enough to stand up to it. At least it is too close for comfort. There are far too many Americans too dumb by a mile to comprehend the issues.

  39. 39
    @SuperPhilthyrich

    Neil laid that out perfectly. Trump seriously thought the persistency would elevate his con game to a whole new level never seen before. What it actually did was expose his con’s to all the wrong people and place him under a legal microscope. Now he wants to interpret the words of the Constitution to adhere to his con game.
    The glaring flaw in all of this twaddle is; why would we have 3 equal but separate branches of government if one of them was completely immune from prosecution for any reason? Our founding fathers lived in a time when summary execution was a very real threat. There’s no way in the world they would’ve left that door open for a future tyrant to capitalize on.

  42. 42
    @d.f.9064

    I used to have circular arguments with my first wife. Results: we were divorced, she was diagnosed with a mental illness (BPD), she died young and alone.

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