John Roberts’ Invention of Criminal Immunity for Trump Continues to Damage America and Accountability
Nations Without a Roberts Court Demonstrate Fidelity to the Rule of Law and Justice by Holding the Powerful Accountable for Their Crimes
Over the past 24 hours, two countries have demonstrated what it means for no one to be above the law – an increasingly stark contrast to what is happening in America under the rules invented by John Roberts and his fellow Republican appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court. Much of the destruction happening in the U.S. traces back to Roberts and his destructive and counter-constitutional grant of immunity to Donald Trump.
In the United Kingdom, Thames Valley police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York, on charges of misconduct in public office based on revelations in the Epstein Files. The King of England responded to his brother’s arrest by affirming, “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,” adding that investigators “have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.” Even before the U.S. Department of Justice’s most recent partial release of the Epstein Files, Mountbatten-Windsor had been embroiled in controversy due to his long and close relationship with the notorious sexual predators Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Over a decade ago, Virginia (Roberts) Giuffre publicly alleged that Epstein and Maxwell engaged in illegal sex trafficking of her and other girls and women. In particular, she attested that she was trafficked to the man then known as Prince Andrew for sexual acts in London when she was 17 and later at Epstein’s infamous island compound on Little St. James. Though he denied wrongdoing, Mountbatten-Windsor settled her later civil lawsuit against him in 2022 and made a donation to a charity supporting survivors of sexual abuse.
The criminal charges filed this week against him involve “misconduct in public office.”
That’s one way of describing the very thing John Roberts illegitimately sought to shield Trump from. Roberts coordinated with his fellow Republican appointees to concoct a broad and unprecedented grant of immunity from criminal prosecution for Trump for anything he claims is an “official act.” The actual allegations and evidence before the Court detailed Trump’s deeply damaging “misconduct in public office” in trying to subvert Americans’ votes: fomenting the January 6 insurrection, trying to get fake electors appointed to disrupt the Electoral College vote, and pressuring officials in Georgia to declare him the winner despite him losing the popular vote in the state, including in Fulton County.
Elsewhere, in South Korea, a Seoul District Court sentenced the country’s former president Yoon Suk-Yeol to life in prison for “abusing his authority and leading an insurrection related to his imposition of martial law in late 2024,” according to translated press accounts. The presiding judges noted that, as president, Suk-Yeol “directly and proactively planned the offense,” which “resulted in enormous social costs,” and that “it has been difficult to find any indication that the defendant has expressed remorse regarding this.” The same could be said of Trump, as former Special Counsel Jack Smith described the proof beyond a reasonable doubt that had been assembled before Roberts intervened – effectively pardoning Trump and paving the way for his return to power.
Likewise, the courts in Brazil convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro of a conspiracy to “violently dismantle” the democratic rule of law and overthrow his electoral defeat. Last November, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting that coup. Trump has since tried to pressure Brazil to exonerate him (like Roberts did for Trump). Brazil has declined.
Accountability for crimes by elected officials – and even those of royal birth – is advancing everywhere but in the United States. It’s not all John Roberts’ fault. Years earlier, Alex Acosta, a George W. Bush appointee to the post of U.S. Attorney, cut the dirty plea deal that allowed Epstein to avoid more severe federal charges, despite substantial evidence of widespread abuse of underage girls.
And, though career prosecutors in the first Trump administration were allowed to pursue charges against Epstein and Maxwell, in Trump’s second term, his approach has changed. His hand-picked political appointees at the Justice Department – Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, both former defense attorneys for Trump – have taken a different tack. For example, they oversaw decisions including moving Maxwell from the prison she was originally serving her twenty-year sentence to a minimum security Club Fed style prison camp, where she is “much, much happier.”
For decades after Richard Nixon tried to direct the Justice Department to protect him from criminal liability, no president had dared to try to do the same, and long-standing agreements of separation between DOJ and successive White Houses prevented such interference.
What changed? John Roberts, in his illegitimate immunity ruling, gave Trump the green light to direct the Justice Department’s investigations and actions. Then, with the help of Senate Republicans, Trump installed two loyalists willing to do his bidding at the top of DOJ.
Not only have they been wielding criminal law to pursue Trump’s political enemies, they are actively preventing the full release of the Epstein Files, in what some contend is the biggest cover-up in DOJ history. Bondi told Trump last May that he was mentioned repeatedly in the files and then tried to stall their release, but Congress ultimately ordered their disclosure – with protections for the survivors and victims. She and Blanche seemingly spent hours approving redactions to the thousands and thousands of mentions of Trump, as well as the names of most of the men involved, while also managing to release the identities and other details about numerous girls and women.
Under Bondi and Blanche, DOJ has not charged anyone with an Epstein-related crime. They have not even bothered to interview the victims of the men whose names they redacted, which Bondi refused to apologize for. She even asserted that there is no evidence of potential crimes by Trump, despite evidence that needs to be investigated.
Other countries are taking this much more seriously. Norway’s former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland, for example, was just charged with gross corruption over his ties to Epstein. In the U.S., Blanche had the audacity to state that it is no crime to party with Epstein, as Trump had repeatedly – sidestepping the allegations in the files.
He and Bondi act like people who know they will never be held accountable for their roles in this cover-up or anything else, while they say they have done nothing wrong. Perhaps that is because in the pernicious immunity ruling John Roberts orchestrated, he also sought to set the pardon power beyond any review.
So now we have a president who can commit crimes with impunity and pardon his accomplices – just like he did with the violent insurrectionists who attacked our Capitol on January 6, as he incited them to do. The violence in Minneapolis and other cities by ICE agents also seems emboldened by the notion that they too can get a piece of the immunity pie.
On issue after issue, it is Roberts’ original sin in the despicable grant of immunity that has emboldened Trump’s worst instincts. Roberts has unraveled the rule of law from the inside, even as lower court judges, for the most part, valiantly try to enforce the rules and laws in America.
No wonder Trump told Roberts a year ago: “Thank you again. Thank you again. Won’t forget it.” Earlier this month, he said of the chief justice: “‘I had the nastiest, most vicious joke about John Roberts. If you think I’m going to tell that joke you can forget it.’” ‘I’m going to kiss his ass for a long time,’ he added, an apparent reference to the role Roberts could play in deciding current and future cases involving Trump and his administration.”
But it’s not a joke. It’s a real-life ongoing disaster. And it is up to we the people to honor the principle that King Charles reminded us of: the law must take its course. Through our voices and our votes, we must rebuke the Roberts Court and demand that justice and the rule of law – the vital principle that no one is above the law – be restored.
What I’m Reading:
Paul Krugman’s latest column, “Turning Our Back on Clean Energy,” mentions the Roberts Court.
He notes how the nation’s highest court has been captured and how it has advanced the agenda of the most powerful companies and people.
Jose Andres’ book Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs
This is a truly inspiring memoir about World Central Kitchen and how we can help make our world a better place.
The Declaration of Independence, of course.
State of the Swamp
Join DEFIANCE.org and COURIER at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on February 24th for the State of the Swamp, a rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union.
Opposition figures, current and former elected officials, celebrities, and other leaders will gather to tell the truth and to counter Donald Trump’s lies. Speakers include Robert DeNiro, Jim Acosta, Mehdi Hasan, and Senator Ron Wyden.
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A “John Roberts” will refer to the act of reaching a pinnacle of success then reaching into the gutter of human-kind to find those who would be beholden to you; partying with criminals while wearing a robe.
Thanks for this timely update. Will the State of the Swamp be broadcast live or recorded so West Coast viewers can watch?