Former White House lawyer John Dean on Monday offered his opinion on the Supreme Court’s blockbuster ruling granting Donald Trump partial immunity from special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case, telling CNN that Richard Nixon “would have walked” under the decision.
Noting the Supreme Court has already “[blown] away decades-old precedents” like Roe v. Wade, Dean said the High Court “looks like they have mauled some of the earlier decisions relating to Nixon as well.”
“This is a radical ruling that a president is immune, which is nowhere to be found in the Constitution or our history,” Dean said.
Asked about the ruling granting immunity for “official conversations with the vice president,” Dean noted the parallels between Trump’s election subversion case and Watergate.
“That’s directly parallel with Watergate behavior,” Dean said. "As I was reading and scanning the opinion … I was struck how Nixon would get a walk. What he said is true: When a president does it, that means it's not illegal.”
Dean added that “what’s not addressed in the opinion” is “what does the staff do in carrying out his orders?”
“Are they too immune now? That isn't clear … and president's don't typically carry these things out themselves. So there's a broader implication to this as to who can carry out illegal orders.”
The famed White House lawyer said Chief Justice John Roberts is “not calling balls and strikes — he’s creating a new game.”
“So it's just the flag is flying upside down right now over the Supreme Court as to what the hell they're doing and why they're doing it,” Dean said.
“It is not strengthening the presidency,” he addded
Asked about how the ruling would have impacted Watergate, Dean told CNN, “I think that Nixon would have survived.”
“I think he would have walked under this ruling,” Dean said.
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