Alaska political leader and conservative champion Kelly Tshibaka, who chairs the Trump campaign for the 49th state, said the Supreme Court opinion in Trump vs. United States is well written, based on precedent, and follows the rule of law.
Must Read Alaska asked Tshibaka to give us her views on the ruling that upheld his presidential immunity, a decision that was issued on Monday by the Court.
“It took courage for the Court to issue an opinion that absolutely protects presidential immunity rather than capitulates to the political pressures of current events,” Tshibaka said.
The Supreme Court found Trump is immune from Jan. 6 statements he made to Vice President Mike Pence, the Department of Justice, and likely to the public via social media.
He is also immune from prosecution for his speech the day of the protest on Jan. 6, 2021, when dozens of protesters entered the U.S. Capitol after door guards opened up the entries.
“The President possesses ‘extraordinary power to speak to his fellow citizens and on their behalf,” the ruling said.
Now, the lower court in D.C. will be forced to decide which alleged acts in his indictment were “official,” and which ones were “unofficial.” It will only be able to prosecute “unofficial” acts and Special Counsel Jack Smith will have to a high hill to climb in proving what constitutes “unofficial.”
Read the ruling for yourself at this link.
The Court also held presidential immunity is extended to not only his official duties, but also to conduct “within the outer perimeter of his official duties.”
The justices determined it was necessary to go far in protecting the immunity of the president because otherwise it would result in “hesitation to execute the duties of his office fearlessly and fairly.”
“This Presidential immunity decision may affect the other lawfare cases against Trump, as well,” said Tshibaka, who is a Harvard-trained lawyer. “After defining the vast extent of presidential immunity, the Court did not determine whether it would apply to specific conversations Trump had with state officials and remanded that to the District Court to decide.”
Tshibaka continued, “I’m intrigued that, while the Court knew it was issuing an expansive decision protecting presidential immunity, it also denied a request from Trump’s advisor, Steve Bannon, just one business day before this Trump vs. United States opinion, to delay his prison sentence. Bannon argued that his actions and conversations were covered by Trump’s executive privilege. While executive privilege is different in law than presidential immunity, they flow from the same principle.”
She observed that much of the hyper-partisan rhetoric on either side of this issue reveals a lack of knowledge about the actual case.
“We must be advocates for due process based in the rule of law, not political outcomes that we want to achieve for partisan objectives,” Tshibaka said. “True advocates for the Constitution would celebrate this decision not only as applied to President Trump, but also as it will be applied to President Biden. When Biden is not prosecuted for acts because of Trump v. United States, that also will be a victory for the rule of law and the country.”
This case “protects the official acts of President Trump as much as it does President Biden, other presidents, and the future of America,” Tshibaka said. “Critics are focused on the potential outcome of election, not on the continued integrity of the Constitution and balance of power of our co-equal branches of government.”
Among official duties might be the video that Trump posted on Jan. 6 on Twitter, telling protesters to go home in peace. It’s a video that the prior Jack Dorsey Twitter management removed just five minutes after Trump posted it on Jan. 6, 2021, and subsequently shut down his Twitter account, so the public could never see what he actually said:
Kelly Tshibaka, former candidate for U.S. Senate and now host of the podcast, TV, and radio show STAND, was named the chairwoman for the Alaska Trump organization in February.
