Amid Republican lawmakers’ tsunami of protests and attacks on the American justice system in their rush to defend Donald Trump over his criminal conviction, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has raised some eyebrows.
In remarks defending the ex-president, his party’s 2024 presumptive nominee, the Speaker appeared to suggest he has been talking with conservative justices on the Supreme Court about the Trump criminal trial, as NCRM reported. He further implied the court’s right wing jurists wanted to overturn the conviction.
Johnson, often dubbed “MAGA Mike” by his left wing critics and his right-wing supporters for his close ties to Trump, in a Friday interview with Fox News cloaked his remarks. But critics were left with the impression, or at least wondering if, there may be unethical backchannels at some of the highest levels of the federal government.
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“Well there’s a lot of developments yet to come but I do think, I do believe the Supreme Court should step in,” Speaker Johnson told Fox News (video below.) “Obviously, this is totally unprecedented. And it’s dangerous to our system. I mean, we’ve all discussed this before. And you all talk about it all the time. This is diminishing the American people’s faith in our system of justice itself. And to maintain a republic, you have to have that, people have to believe that justice is fair that there’s equal justice under law. They don’t see that right now. And I think that the justices on the court, I know many of them personally, I think they’re deeply concerned about that as we are so I think they’ll set this straight but it’s going to take a while.”
As some have pointed out, Johnson’s apparent ignorance of the separation of powers and need for judicial independence came less than 24 hours after the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, invoked that very requirement in his refusal to meet with top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee over the Alito ethics scandal.
“This suggests that Speaker Johnson has had conversations with Supreme Court justices on this very topic. Quite interesting, especially given Chief Justice Roberts’ refusal to meet with Senate Dems because of ‘separation of powers,'” wrote journalist Jay Bookman.
The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol, also the director of Defending Democracy Together and a former Republican, asked, “What Justices have discussed the Trump case privately with Trump ally Mike Johnson?”
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“Fascinating to hear the GOP Speaker of the House admit to having private conversations with multiple justices who expressed concern to him about Trump’s conviction. I’m sure those justices will recuse from any eventual appeal to avoid sitting on a case they’ve pre-judged,” noted Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, who writes about the law and the courts. He then offered, “we can reserve the possibility that he feels he read their minds but I think the clear suggestion is that they expressed their concern to him in some way!”
Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffrey added, “Why are *any* justices talking to Johnson about this case? That’s outrageous if true.”
U.S. Naval War College national security affairs professor David Burbach: “Supreme Court Justices have been telling a politician how they’d likely rule on a case that isn’t even in front of them yet, but expressing hopes they do get it? Assuming Johnson isn’t making it up — big assumption — that’s a gross ethical violation.”
The advocacy group Take Back the Court did not hold back.
“Chief Justice Roberts says he won’t meet with senators about obvious ethics violations because of ‘separation of powers,’ but his justices are talking politics in the House Speaker’s DMs,” the group said on social media.
“Today,” they added in an official statement, “House Speaker Mike Johnson alluded to conversations he had with Supreme Court justices about Donald Trump’s felony convictions, saying there are justices who are ‘deeply concerned about’ the rulings — and that he believes the court will ‘set this straight.’ This comes as the court considers a case related to Trump’s immunity from prosecution from official acts done while in office.”
“Seems like we really should know more about the personal relationship between the flag-waving Christian nationalist Speaker of the House and the flag-waving Christian nationalist justices on the U.S. Supreme Court,” suggested Alex Aronson, former Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee who now serves as Executive Director of the non-profit organization Court Accountability.”
He then asked: “Are they texting about Trump?”
Watch the video above or at this link.
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