With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
THE BLOODSHED RESUMES — “Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders,” by AP’s Najib Jobain, Bassem Mroue and Cara Anna
THE SARTORIAL SANTOS — “The Clothes That Unmade George Santos,” by WSJ’s Jacob Gallagher: “The Republican congressman with fashion flair is partly undone by his expensive taste.”
WHAT WILL SCOTUS DO? — The Trump trials can be confusing. With so much procedural action occurring across so many cases in so many jurisdictions, it’s often difficult to know when something truly important has happened.
It’s worth pausing and highlighting those hinge moments in these complicated cases when they arise.
Last night’s opinion by Judge TANYA CHUTKAN, who ruled that DONALD TRUMP is not immune from criminal prosecution, is one of those crucial turning points.
First, recall that Trump’s general strategy across these cases is twofold:
- Argue that he’s immune from any post-presidential accountability for his actions as president.
- Delay the proceedings until he wins the 2024 election and then dismisses the cases.
Chutkan delivered a massive blow to the first part of this strategy. But what happens next at the appeals and Supreme Court level with respect to her decision could determine the fate of strategy No. 2.
Chutkan’s opinion is the first by a federal court to hold what probably seems obvious to most: A former president is not immune from criminal prosecution for crimes committed while serving as president.
This was no technical legal matter but a sweeping opinion written in language that leaned on the most sacred historical touchstones of American history: the founding ideals about the role of a king versus a president, the Federalist…
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