Editor's note: This headline has been updated.
Former President Donald Trump is reportedly laying the groundwork to make it so he can be effectively above the law if elected to a second term this November.
According to a Friday report in Rolling Stone, Trump is reaching out to Republicans in Congress and urging them to pass legislation to make it illegal for local district attorneys and state attorneys general to charge him with crimes. The bill is called the "Stop Political Prosecutions Act," and would shield all former presidents from all non-federal prosecutions by allowing a president to move those cases to federal court.
"Even after a second term, he doesn’t think any of this is going to end,” one unnamed Republican lawmaker told Rolling Stone. “He doesn’t think Democrats are going to quit coming after him.”
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Earlier this week, Trump made off-the-cuff remarks to reporters gathered outside of the Manhattan courtroom where his ongoing hush money cover-up trial is taking place, and hinted that many of his GOP allies in Congress want to aid his efforts to fend off criminal prosecutions.
“We have a lot of ’em. They want to come," Trump said. "I say, ‘Just stay back and pass lots of laws to stop things like this.'"
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has voiced support for the proposal in an interview with Politico earlier this month. Johnson notably did not say no when asked directly if presidents should have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution.
"I think it’s common sense that you can’t have the president sitting in the Oval Office worried about whether some lawyer or some local DA somewhere is going to go after him," Johnson said.
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Of course, while federal prosecutions aren't affected by the legislation, Trump himself would be able to handily dismiss federal prosecutions, given that his appointed attorney general would have oversight over the Department of Justice. And there's already a long-standing DOJ policy that prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents, meaning if the legislation were passed then Trump would effectively be granted a permanent get-out-of-jail free card.
Should he win a second term, it's likely whoever Trump appoints to head the DOJ would dismiss the two federal cases brought by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith. And even if either the classified documents trial or the D.C. election interference trial were to return guilty verdicts before November, Trump could still technically be able to pardon himself if he returned to the White House.
However, the former president may have already succeeded in pushing his two upcoming federal trials back until after the November election. The Supreme Court has until the end of its term in June to decide on Trump's argument that presidents should have absolute broad immunity for all acts carried out while in office, meaning U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan likely wouldn't schedule the trial until late August or September, provided the Supreme Court rules against Trump. And U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — who was appointed by Trump to her lifetime position in 2020 — scuttled Trump's initial May 20 trial date, said she might not finish ruling on the backlog of pre-trial motions until late July.
Click here to read Rolling Stone's report in full (subscription required).
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