Constitutional law professor: Soleimani killing looks 'like summary execution without trial’ after defense sec admits he saw no evidence to back up Trump's claim

Alex Henderson
13 January 2020

One of the talking points that supporters of President Donald Trump have been using in defense of the killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani on January 3 is that the killing is no different from the operation that resulted in the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 under President Barack Obama. But bin Laden, unlike Soleimani, was not a government official. And constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe is asserting that the Soleimani killing amounts to a “summary execution without trial” rather than an act of self-defense.

Las week on Twitter, the 78-year-old Tribe (who co-founded the American Constitutional Society and teaches at Harvard Law School) posted,” In the fog of war, it’s easy to lose track of what counts. Whether Soleimani posed an ‘imminent’ threat that killing him would assuredly end isn’t just a debate over labels. It’s the difference (between) self-defense to protect Americans and murder to stave off Trump’s impeachment.”

In a separate tweet Sunday, Tribe asserted that the killing of Soleimani cannot be justified as an act of self-defense after Defense Secretary Mark Esper admitted he didn't see any specific evidence to back up President Donald Trump's claim that Soleimani was planning to attack "four embassies" in the region.

“With the Sec Def’s concession that he didn’t see any specific evidence of an imminent threat that made killing Soleimani an act of self-defense,” Tribe wrote, “it’s increasingly looking like summary execution without trial just to keep this president in office. Another gross abuse of power.”