Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is leading an 18-state amicus brief in defense of former President Donald Trump in his presidential immunity case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with alleged crimes related to the Jan. 6 riots at the nation’s Capitol. The case will decide if presidents can be prosecuted for official actions taken while in office.
Marshall claims that there are facts about the case which raise concerns the prosecution may be motivated by politics, not justice.
“If this prosecution is designed to silence or imprison the sitting President’s political opponent right before the election, it is an abuse of the justice system that the Supreme Court should take seriously,” said Marshall. “Jack Smith argues that the risk of a former President facing partisan prosecutions is minimal, yet he can’t give any non-partisan reason for his extraordinary attempts to rush President Trump to trial before November. It’s preposterous.”
Alabama and the other states’ brief argue that the D.C. Circuit was wrong to say the risk of partisan prosecutions is “slight.” Not only does this case against Trump appear to be politically motivated, but there are apparently partisan attacks on Trump in courts across the country, the brief says.
The brief argues that the risks of partisan abuse are real; if Trump “had not been president, none of this would be happening.
Alabama’s brief was joined by attorneys general from Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
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