Unlike most of you I don't think the decision actually provides legal immunity for Trump to lock up his opponents, but until every use case is put on one side of the line or the other it's only a matter of time til someone tries.
what it actually does is buy time. Locks up opponent, then is charged over, then a court decides if it is an official act or not. In the meantime, opponent out of commission. or a rallying cry -- could backfire.
It means it gets messier because you could direct DOJ to arrest someone and the court direct them to be released, then you could just have them arrested again, preemptively pardoned, etc. It's a huge fucking mess.
like I said -- buys time. That's all trump has ever done - delay delay delay until its too late to actually act. He didn't turn over the records for a YEAR knowing the Feds would just keep asking for them instead of immediately acting.
What does the ruling say about "official acts" as evidence? Some people were claiming his talks with Pence about pulling a coup are inadmissible as evidence, but Trump is not being charged for having conversations with the vice president. I'm not well versed in legalise, so I don't fully understand
It says official acts not criminal and of themselves can't be evidence, I believe. Which would put a lot of the DOJ/Pence conversations as inadmissible. Basically the strongest form of executive privilege you can imagine.
