Justice Samuel Alito of the Supreme Court on Thursday questioned whether the incumbent’s criminal prosecution, which involved just losing an election, could cause the nation as a whole to destabilize the country as a whole despite the former knowing he could leave office calmly.
As the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether Trump is barred from prosecutors from a charge of trying to reverse the effects of the 2020 presidential poll, Alito made the comment on Thursday. It appears, during the quarrels, that a majority of Supreme Court justices agreed with former President Donald Trump’s lawyers ‘ claims.

On Capitol Hill in Washington on April 25, 2024, Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Elena Kagan are depicted in this designer picture as they appear at the Supreme Court during arguments over whether past president Donald Trump is guilty of plotting to reverse the effects of the 2020 presidential election. ( Dana Verkouteren via AP )
Will n’t leaders who are in business on the last few weeks of company be able to forgive themselves from anything they might have been accused of committing if a president has the authority to forgive himself before leaving company and the D. C. Circuit is correct that there is no immunity from prosecution? Alito asked the president’s Michael Dreeben.
Dreeben argued that he doubted it, claiming that it “presupposes a program that we have never had except for President Nixon and as alleged in the prosecution around.”
The political repercussions of a leader who asserted a right to self-pardon that has never been recognized seem to go against a fundamental principle of our legal system, which is that no one may serve as the judge in their own event. According to him, those are sufficient deterrents to prevent this utopian regime from developing, prompting Alito to ask about the repercussions of allowing the departing president to step down calmly.
Let me start with a simple inquiry about what is necessary for the operation of a robust political culture, which is something everyone wants, Alito said.
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” I’m sure you do agree with me that a stable political culture requires that a prospect who loses an election, even a close one, perhaps a hotly contested one, leave business peacefully if that prospect is — is the incumbent”, he continued, prompting an” of program” from Dreeben.
” All right. Will it not lead to a vicious cycle that destabilizes the working of our nation as a democracy if an incumbent who loses a pretty near, fiercely contested election realizes that a real possibility after leaving office is not that the leader will be able to transition into a quiet retirement but that a leader may be criminally prosecuted by a terrible political player? Alito posed, adding,” And we can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process, where the loser gets thrown in jail”.
As Breitbart News reported,” A federal trial court ruled in]special council Jack ] Smith’s favor that Trump is not immune from prosecution, but Smith’s prosecution in D. C. has been on hold until the Supreme Court weighs in, likely in late June”.
The case is Trump v. United States, No. 23- 939 in the Supreme Court of the United States.