As the Supreme Court considers whether former President Donald Trump should be immune from prosecution, Justice Samuel Alito asked Thursday if a predictable result would be “that presidents on the last couple of days of office are going to pardon themselves from anything that they might have been conceivably charged with committing.”
Michael Dreeben, a lawyer for special counsel Jack Smith’s team, responded that he really doubted that outcome.
“It sort of presupposes a regime that we have never had, except for President Nixon, and as alleged in the indictment here, presidents who are conscious of having engaged in wrongdoing and seeking to shield themselves,” Dreeben said, adding, “this kind of dystopian regime is not going to evolve.”
Alito also asked about whether an outgoing president’s fear that he might be criminally prosecuted “by a bitter political opponent” would lead the nation into a dysfunctional democracy “where the loser gets thrown in jail.”
Dreeben replied that he believes the outcome would be the opposite.
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