'Dare say that’s coming': Lawyer warns Trump targets could be 'thrown in jail' in 'retaliation' blitz
Experts are worried about what could happen if the Trump administration defies a ruling by a federal judge or even the Supreme Court limiting the scope of his executive powr. Lawyer Mark Zaid appeared on MSNBC Tuesday to discuss the possible repercussions.
“Constitutional crisis may be a little bit over the top, but I think what we're seeing is we're on the verge of getting there,” Zaid told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera. “I've been saying to so many people that we're not even close to how bad it's going to be. It is going to get far, far worse.”
“So what we're going to get ... is, when will that decision be by a federal judge that the president of the United States just says, ‘You and what army is going to enforce that?’ That then will be the real constitutional crisis,” he continued.
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Zaid added that the Supreme Court will likely come to regret their decision to grant the president immunity.
“The immunity decision, of course, is going to come back to haunt them, because President Trump has effectively been given an opportunity to do whatever he wants without at least criminal penalty for official acts.”
That means the Supreme Court could have to go after people other than Trump.
“So it may be that the Supreme Court, or any judge, is going to have to start holding in contempt or sanctioning lower level officials beneath the president who might not fall within that immunity ruling again starting to bring us into what would be a constitutional crisis of one branch pitted against the other in a real war, not just a disagreement war.”
Cabrera asked whether he was worried about future retribution -- Trump revoked Zaid’s security clearance last week.
“I have no doubt, absolutely no doubt,” Zaid said. “Obviously there's a lot of retribution going on, but understand also, it's the people around him that are pushing much of this — nobody pays attention to, sort of the man behind the curtain. It's not just Trump. There's so many people who have grudges against those of us who have been just fighting for the rule of law.”
“I'm going to continue to do what I do every year since the Clinton administration,” he continued. "And that's hold a president and his administration accountable for illegal and unethical violations. I'm not talking about policy disputes that's for everybody else to deal with. I deal with the legal issues.”
But Zaid predicts the situation will escalate.
“We are not done seeing what retaliation we're going to face, the concerns that I was raising before inauguration, those, some of them haven't manifested themselves," he said. "No one has been arrested or thrown into jail. And just wait for that, because I dare say that that's coming.”
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Watch the video below or at this link.
