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Wednesday, Jul. 03, 2024

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The Supreme Court just made Trump's dreams of weaponizing the DOJ come true

By Hayes Brown

In the process of granting former President Donald Trump immunity for at least some of his actions between Election Day 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021, the Supreme Court's sweeping decision also provided a stamp of approval for one of the most dangerous parts of Trump's second-term agenda: payback. In doing so, the justices rolled back one of the key post-Watergate reforms preventing presidents from abusing their vast power, freeing Trump, if he's re-elected, to use the Department of Justice as his personal weapon.

The scheme Trump and his allies cooked up in 2020 involved enlisting the Justice Department to give their lies about widespread election fraud an official patina. Then-Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark drafted a letter to send to several states, including Georgia, that would falsely claim that "various irregularities" existed that cast those states' election results into doubt. Had it been sent, the letter would have encouraged those state legislatures to convene special sessions to "investigate" and potentially send to Congress slates flipping the states' Electoral College votes to Trump.

This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest article. Read the full column here.

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STEVE BENEN

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I helped prosecute Watergate. The Supreme Court just proved Richard Nixon right.

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MORE FROM MSNBC

In a new episode of "Prosecuting Donald Trump," MSNBC legal analysts Andrew Weissmann and Mary McCord review the latest fallout from the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. They're also joined by Ryan Goodman of "Just Security" to discuss another significant ruling from the High Court, on the Fischer obstruction case. Despite the ruling, the impact the decision will have on those charged for the January 6th insurrection will be limited. Listen now.

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