Ex-federal judge lays out bombshell effects of Supreme Court hearing Trump immunity claims

29 February 2024

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace planned to have a one-on-one conversation with conservative legal expert J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge, for her "American Autocracy" series on Wednesday afternoon, February 28, but there was a major change of plans when the news broke that the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to hear Donald Trump's argument that he is immune to prosecution in special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case. And Luttig ended up being part of a panel discussion that also Lisa Rubin, Andrew Weissmann, Neal Katyal and other MSNBC legal analysts.

Luttig has been a prominent figure in right-wing legal circles, but he is a scathing critic of Trump and has aggressively promoted the argument that Trump is disqualified from running for president in 2024 based on Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment — which disqualifies any "officer" who has encouraged "insurrection."

On MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," hosted by Never Trump conservative Wallace, Luttig laid out some reasons why the High Court's decision to hear Trump's immunity claims is such a bombshell.

Luttig told Wallace, "This is a momentous decision just to hear this case. There was no reason in this world for the Supreme Court to take this case. The three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia had written a masterful opinion denying the (former) president's claims of absolute immunity. Under the Constitution's laws of the United States, there's never been an argument that a former president is immune from prosecution and for crimes he committed while in office."

Luttig told Wallace that the High Court wouldn't have agreed to take the immunity case if at least one of the justices didn't think the immunity argument had some merit. When Wallace asked Luttig who he thought that justice was, he declined to say.

The conservative legal expert argued that the High Court is "capable" of deciding the immunity case "in time that the former president could be tried" in Smith's prosecution "before the election" but warned that "today's decision makes that…. much more unlikely."

"It is very significant the Court has decided to take the case and hear it," Luttig told Wallace.

Wallace told Luttig that she looks forward to rescheduling the one-on-one conversation that was originally planned for his February 28 appearance on "Deadline: White House" but was really glad that he happened to be on the air when news of the Supreme Court's immunity decision broke.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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