Jack Smith Today, To DC Cir. Ct. of Appeals: Tangerine Is Just Dead... WRONG. He IS NO KING.

With argument set for January 9, almost exactly three years after his insurrection, he should be nervous. These are felony indictments.

Jail is very plausibly in the offing here (forget about remaining on Maine's or Colorado's ballots -- and focus on avoiding the orange jumpsuit). But he won't. And if the GOP decides against nominating him. . . he will run as a third party candidate, and destroy the down ballots for the GOP as well. Sheesh. Here's just a bit of the Special Counsel's cogent 82 page argument on the law, just filed here on Saturday:

. . .No historical materials support the defendant’s broad immunity claim, and the post-Presidency pardon that President Nixon accepted reflects the consensus view that a former President is subject to prosecution after leaving office.

Nor can Presidential immunity be derived by analogy to the Speech or Debate Clause, U.S. Const. art. I, § 6, cl. 1; that textually explicit provision is defined and limited by its unique history.

More apt is the immunity for judges and prosecutors, who are immune from civil liability for official conduct, but not from federal prosecution. . . .

That President Nixon was named as an unindicted coconspirator in a plot to defraud the United States and obstruct justice, Nixon, 418 U.S. at 687, entirely refutes the defendant’s efforts (Br.27-28, 41) to distinguish that case as involving private conduct. See United States v. Haldeman, 559 F.2d 31, 121-22 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (en banc) (per curiam) (explaining that the offense conduct included efforts “to get the CIA to interfere with the Watergate investigation being conducted by the FBI” and “to obtain information concerning the investigation from the FBI and the Department of Justice”) (internal quotation marks omitted). And President Nixon’s acceptance of the pardon represents a “confession of guilt.” Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79, 90-91 (1915). . . .

Now you know. Tangerine is. . . lil' more than a marmalade covered piece of burnt toast, now.

नमस्ते