Dem Leader Jeffries Rips Supreme Court
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday on CNN’s The Situation Room that the Supreme Court had “enabled” President Donald Trump to act like a king, calling the situation shameful.
“You know, one thing to understand, as people who are flirting with the Trump administration or doing the bidding of the Trump administration or engaging in the pay-to-play schemes of the Trump administration, the statute of limitations is five years,” the House’s top Democrat said.
“Donald Trump and this toxic administration will be long gone, but there will still be accountability to be had. And that process, of course, begins now. But it will not be complete until perhaps there is an independent Department of Justice, certainly an independent House of Representatives in Democratic hands,” he claimed.
It should be noted that Democratic attorneys general and prosecutors, as well as Joe Biden’s Justice Dept., all went after Trump during his four-year hiatus from the White House, engaging in unprecedented actions against a former president.
“The Department of Justice is one of the great institutions in law enforcement in the history of this country and Donald Trump and these extremists have been destroying its integrity,” Jeffries continued. “And we should also blame the conservative justices on the Supreme Court for all of the things that we see happening, because they basically gave this president blanket presidential immunity in a country where the framers of the Constitution said, we don’t want a king.
“They’ve effectively enabled Donald Trump at times to behave just like a king. That needs to be revisited as well. The Supreme Court, shame on them for what they’ve done to this country and unleashing this out-of-control behavior that needs to be reversed,” he said, without acknowledging the fact that even liberal justices on the court have regularly sided with the president and his administration.
DA Willis Ordered To Pay Big Fine For Violations In Trump Case
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been ordered to pay over $54,000 in attorney fees for violating Georgia’s Open Records Act, according to court documents.
The dispute arose from Willis’ office failing to provide records requested by defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, a former campaign and White House aide to President Donald Trump. Roman was indicted alongside Trump in the Georgia election interference case, which Willis brought in 2023 and is currently unresolved, Newsweek reported.
Friday’s ruling represents another setback for Fani Willis and her case against Trump and the other defendants, the outlet noted further.
In December, Willis was disqualified from prosecuting the case involving Trump and 18 other co-defendants, who are accused of conspiring to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia. Trump has denied the charges and accused Willis of conducting a politically motivated attack.
The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that the disqualification was necessary due to the “appearance of impropriety” stemming from Willis’ previous relationship with Nathan Wade, a former special prosecutor on the case. Wade was forced to resign in October.
Willis filed an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court in January, arguing that the court was wrong to disqualify her “based solely upon an appearance of impropriety and absent a finding of an actual conflict of interest or forensic misconduct.”
In the court order issued on Friday, the judge found that the DA’s office had been “openly hostile” to Merchant’s requests for documents, adding they were “handled differently than other requests.” The judge added that this indicated a “lack of good faith.”
Willis now has 30 days to provide all the requested records and pay $54,264 to Merchant, reflecting nearly 80 hours of work on the case, according to the court order, Newsweek added.
Merchant had previously accused Willis’ office of withholding crucial documents related to Nathan Wade’s employment. She also requested records detailing how Willis’ office allocated public funds.
In a separate development, the Georgia Senate passed a bill in early March that could allow Trump and his co-defendants to seek reimbursement for their legal expenses.
The legislation, which was approved unanimously, enables counties to cover attorneys’ fees and other legal costs in cases where a district attorney is disqualified due to misconduct, provided the case is dismissed, Newsweek said.
Responding to the court order on Friday, attorney Merchant noted on X: “Proud that we have judges willing to hold people in power accountable when they ignore the law!!!”
Willis wrote in her January appeal: “No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest.”
