'No one will be safe': Cohen warns Trump would rule as 'Führer' after SCOTUS immunity ruling

06 July 2024

Former President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen is sounding the alarm over the prospect of a second Trump administration unbound by the rule of law.

In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, Cohen said the Supreme Court of the United States' (SCOTUS) decision in the Trump v. United States case that guaranteed presidents absolute broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts is an ominous sign for all of Trump's perceived enemies. The now-disbarred attorney told the Beast that if Trump were elected to a second term, that he would view that decision as carte blanche to use the full force of the federal government to pursue vengeance against anyone who opposes him.

"He’ll run the country like a king, like a supreme leader, like a monarch, like a dictator, like the Führer," Cohen said. "If re-elected in November, in light of the Supreme Court ruling, his worst impulses will be magnified a hundredfold. The depth of Donald’s actions will not be merely isolated to critics, political enemies and the like."

On Monday, the Court ruled 6-3 — with all six of the Court's conservatives in the majority — that a president could technically violate laws so long as he was acting within the official capacities of the office. While the Court technically left it to the lower courts to determine what constitutes an "official act," legal experts have pointed out that any attempts to prosecute a current or former president would be extraordinarily difficult. As law professor Kimberly Wehle wrote earlier this week for the Bulwark, a president will almost always get the benefit of the doubt in future prosecutions, thanks to SCOTUS' ruling.

""Because instructing the DOJ to do certain things and hiring and firing its leadership are core constitutional functions of the presidency, it's impossible, according to the Court's reasoning, to second-guess whether the president used those powers illegally — or at least if he does, he can't be indicted for it," she wrote.

Cohen, who served a three-year federal prison sentence for his role in orchestrating hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and other crimes like tax evasion, told the Beast that he believes his prosecution by Trump's Department of Justice was payback for speaking out about against Trump. He opined that, should Trump win a second term, corruption and impunity would be his modus operandi.

"The uber wealthy like the Elon Musks, Jeff Bezos, Zuckerbergs will see consequences as well, as Donald cares for no one or anything other than the almighty dollar," Cohen said. "Members of the Supreme Court and federal judges will similarly become neutered as Donald fulfills his promise to dismantle our tripartite system of government, stripping the legislative and judicial branches of their coequal power and conferring all power to the executive branch; meaning himself."

"No one will be safe," Cohen said.

After the immunity decision was issued, DOJ special counsel Jack Smith's D.C. election interference case is almost certainly scuttled. Trump has also managed to delay his original July 11 sentencing date in New York after Judge Juan Merchan said more time was needed to see how SCOTUS' ruling would apply to Trump's 34 felony convictions. The former president's sentencing has been tentatively postponed to September.

Click here to read the Beast's report in full (subscription required).

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