Another big surge forward on the road to hell.

The US supreme court’s decision on Monday to confer broad immunity to former presidents is likely to eviscerate numerous parts of the criminal prosecution against Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In other words yes, the presidency is in effect a dictatorship.

Most crucially for the special counsel, Jack Smith, his prosecutors will not be able to introduce as evidence any acts deemed to be official, even as contextual information for jurors to show Trump’s intent.

“There’s such divinity doth hedge a king…”

The alleged illegal conduct came in five categories: Trump pressuring US justice department officials to open sham investigations into election fraud; Trump pressing his vice-president to return him to the White House; Trump trying to obstruct Congress from certifying the election; Trump giving a speech that led rioters to storm the US Capitol building and Trump’s plot to recruit fake electors .

Roberts undercut at least three of the five alleged categories in the opinion.

Trump’s interactions with justice department officials, including his threats to fire the then attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and the then acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue, were absolutely immune because overseeing the department was a core function, Roberts found.

So a president can tell justice department officials to do anything, no matter how depraved and/or criminal, because overseeing the department is a core function.

Trump’s interactions with Pence, including pressuring him to reject electoral votes for Joe Biden in Congress on January 6, were presumptively immune because presidential discussions about vice-presidential responsibility were part of the job.

So a president can tell a vice-president to murder heads of state, rob banks, hijack planes, because telling the vp what to do is part of the job, is that right?