Donald Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges because his predecessors didn't commit any crimes, Michael Dreeben, an attorney representing Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, told the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week with profound legal and political consequences: whether Trump is immune from prosecution in a federal case charging him with trying to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
Dreeben was responding to Justice Clarence Thomas asking why no other president has faced prosecutions.
"Over the not-so-distant past … certain presidents have engaged in various activity, coups or operations like Operation Mongoose, when I was a teenager, and yet there were no prosecutions," Thomas said. "Why? If what you're saying is right, it would seem that would have been ripe for criminal prosecution of someone.
"So, Justice Thomas, I think this is a central question," Dreeben said. "The reason why there have not been prior criminal prosecutions is that there were not crimes."
"You raise the question about potential overseas taking of life and the Office of Legal Counsel has addressed this quite specifically," Dreeben added. "There is a background principle of criminal law, called the public authority exception to liability, and it is read into federal law unless Congress takes specific action to oust it, which it never has done as far as I'm aware."
Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges, making his appeal the first time in the country's history that the Supreme Court has weighed in on this issue.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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