Judges Skeptical That Trump Is Immune From Jan. 6 Prosecution

Jan 09, 2024 View Original Article
  • Bias Rating

    10% Center

  • Reliability

    40% ReliableFair

  • Policy Leaning

    10% Center

  • Politician Portrayal

    N/A

Bias Score Analysis

The A.I. bias rating includes policy and politician portrayal leanings based on the author’s tone found in the article using machine learning. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.

Sentiments

Overall Sentiment

-27% Negative

  •   Liberal
  •   Conservative
SentenceSentimentBias
"It's paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal laws, she said."
Positive
32% Conservative
"Trump has said he plans to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court as well."
Positive
16% Conservative
"If judges do so after ruling against Trump, the Supreme Court could, if it wishes, take up his legal challenge while letting the trial go forward."
Negative
-4% Liberal
"Trump was not required to attend the hearing but chose to be there."
Negative
-10% Liberal
"Sauer asked at the hearing for any ruling against Trump to be put on hold for appeals to the full D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court."
Negative
-14% Liberal
"Trump is seeking to delay his trial, set for March, until after the presidential election in which he is the leading Republican candidate."
Negative
-20% Liberal
"A ruling by the D.C. Circuit will impact only one of the four prosecutions Trump faces."
Negative
-22% Liberal
"But Sauer later suggested that anything a president does while in office is likely to be an official duty, saying the fact that the indictment against Trump focuses solely on acts before he left office is a telling indication that were dealing with official acts."
Negative
-26% Liberal
"But Trump is making similar arguments in state court in Georgia, where he is charged in a conspiracy that covers much of the same conduct."
Negative
-26% Liberal
"Trump argues that he caot be tried for trying to overturn the 2020 election results because he was acquitted by the Senate of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol."
Negative
-28% Liberal
"Would such a president be subject to criminal prosecution if he's not impeached?D. John Sauer, representing Trump, insisted that for any crime coected to a president's official duties, the political process of impeachment and conviction by the Senate would have to occur before prosecution."
Negative
-36% Liberal
"Trump is arguing that the judges should use the same reasoning that led the Supreme Court to give Nixon immunity from civil lawsuits for official acts in 1982."
Negative
-36% Liberal
"Trump has made clear that if reelected, he plans to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies."
Negative
-38% Liberal
"But Pan posited that he had made a fatal concession here as well - by acknowledging that a former president could be charged with a crime after impeachment, Trump was forfeiting all his arguments about the danger of such prosecutions."
Negative
-40% Liberal
"A different panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled last month that in the context of a lawsuit brought by police officers and lawmakers injured on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump does not have absolute immunity because campaigning to stay in office is not an official act."
Negative
-44% Liberal
"The judges also pressed both sides on a brief from the nonprofit American Oversight arguing that Trump does not have the right to appeal before trial because he is making a novel claim."
Negative
-44% Liberal
"Both Henderson and Pan noted that Trump was now making the exact opposite argument as the one he made at his impeachment trial, when his lawyers told senators that the criminal justice system was the appropriate venue for accountability."
Negative
-48% Liberal
"The hearing - which invoked references dating back to George Washington's tenure - showed how the historic prosecution of Trump has raised difficult questions largely avoided for more than two centuries about the limits of presidential power and the consequences of presidential crimes."
Negative
-60% Liberal
"Trump also claimed that he caot be prosecuted by Smith because he was already tried and acquitted by Congress in his 2021 impeachment."
Negative
-60% Liberal
"Both the Justice Department and Trump disagreed; Pearce called it a small point of common ground that a former president had a right not to be tried until courts had determined whether or not he is immune from prosecution."
Negative
-60% Liberal
"Trump has said he plans to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court as well."
Positive
8% Conservative
"James Pearce, a Justice Department attorney, called that an extraordinarily frightening proposition."
Negative
-4% Liberal
"If judges do so after ruling against Trump, the Supreme Court could, if it wishes, take up his legal challenge while letting the trial go forward."
Negative
-2% Liberal
"Even if it would help the government to have the appeal thrown out on jurisdictional grounds, Pearce said, doing justice means getting the law right.Steve Vladeck, a national security law expert at the University of Texas, said the court was likely to agree with that position."
Negative
-4% Liberal
"Walt Nauta, Trump's longtime personal aide and his co-defendant in the Florida case, sat with the former president in court Tuesday."
Negative
-4% Liberal
"I think it reflects the fundamentally unprecedented nature of the criminal charges here, Pearce said."
Negative
-6% Liberal
"Smith's office asked the court to issue a final order within five days of its opinion, potentially putting Trump's trial back on a fast track."
Negative
-6% Liberal
"He suggested that President Biden could be indicted by a Texas jury and a Texas judge . . ."
Negative
-8% Liberal
"Trump was not required to attend the hearing but chose to be there."
Negative
-4% Liberal
"The other two cases do not involve Trump's conduct as president."
Negative
-10% Liberal
"The three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit tasked with reviewing Trump's claims, which were rejected by his trial judge last month, appeared to agree during the hour-long hearing."
Negative
-14% Liberal
"Sauer asked at the hearing for any ruling against Trump to be put on hold for appeals to the full D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court."
Negative
-8% Liberal
"she asked Pearce."
Negative
-18% Liberal
"Sauer said he wasn't bound by any concessions made by Trump's previous lawyers."
Negative
-18% Liberal
"Trump's comments echoed those made by his attorney in court, who told the judges that if the prosecution went forward, it would open a Pandora's box from which this nation may never recover and create an endless cycle of prosecution of former presidents."
Negative
-20% Liberal
"Trump is seeking to delay his trial, set for March, until after the presidential election in which he is the leading Republican candidate."
Negative
-10% Liberal
"Henderson, historically protective of presidential power, otherwise joined her colleagues in skepticism of Trump's arguments."
Negative
-22% Liberal
"A ruling by the D.C. Circuit will impact only one of the four prosecutions Trump faces."
Negative
-12% Liberal
"Pan quoted Trump's lawyer in that case saying, We have an investigative process in this country to which no former officeholder is immune."
Negative
-24% Liberal
"But Sauer later suggested that anything a president does while in office is likely to be an official duty, saying the fact that the indictment against Trump focuses solely on acts before he left office is a telling indication that were dealing with official acts."
Negative
-12% Liberal
"But Trump is making similar arguments in state court in Georgia, where he is charged in a conspiracy that covers much of the same conduct."
Negative
-14% Liberal
"A panel of three federal appellate judges expressed skepticism about Donald Trump's claim to sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution and concerns about its implications, suggesting it would allow a future president to have a political rival assassinated by the military without repercussions."
Negative
-28% Liberal
"Trump argues that he caot be tried for trying to overturn the 2020 election results because he was acquitted by the Senate of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol."
Negative
-14% Liberal
"Sauer countered that Trump's meetings with members of Congress and the Justice Department about overturning the election, along with his tweets falsely claiming election fraud, all count as protected official conduct, not evidence of a crime as alleged."
Negative
-30% Liberal
"Would such a president be subject to criminal prosecution if he's not impeached?D. John Sauer, representing Trump, insisted that for any crime coected to a president's official duties, the political process of impeachment and conviction by the Senate would have to occur before prosecution."
Negative
-18% Liberal
"Trump is arguing that the judges should use the same reasoning that led the Supreme Court to give Nixon immunity from civil lawsuits for official acts in 1982."
Negative
-18% Liberal
"Sauer said that case was different because Nixon's alleged crimes involved purely private conduct - an assertion Pearce rebutted forcefully, noting that the Republican was accused of using the CIA to interfere in an FBI investigation."
Negative
-36% Liberal
"Trump has made clear that if reelected, he plans to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies."
Negative
-20% Liberal
"But Pan posited that he had made a fatal concession here as well - by acknowledging that a former president could be charged with a crime after impeachment, Trump was forfeiting all his arguments about the danger of such prosecutions."
Negative
-20% Liberal
"A different panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled last month that in the context of a lawsuit brought by police officers and lawmakers injured on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump does not have absolute immunity because campaigning to stay in office is not an official act."
Negative
-24% Liberal
"The judges also pressed both sides on a brief from the nonprofit American Oversight arguing that Trump does not have the right to appeal before trial because he is making a novel claim."
Negative
-22% Liberal
"Both Henderson and Pan noted that Trump was now making the exact opposite argument as the one he made at his impeachment trial, when his lawyers told senators that the criminal justice system was the appropriate venue for accountability."
Negative
-26% Liberal
"The hearing - which invoked references dating back to George Washington's tenure - showed how the historic prosecution of Trump has raised difficult questions largely avoided for more than two centuries about the limits of presidential power and the consequences of presidential crimes."
Negative
-22% Liberal
"The hearing - which invoked references dating back to George Washington's tenure - showed how the historic prosecution of Trump has raised difficult questions largely avoided for more than two centuries about the limits of presidential power and the consequences of presidential crimes."
Negative
-22% Liberal
"Trump also claimed that he caot be prosecuted by Smith because he was already tried and acquitted by Congress in his 2021 impeachment."
Negative
-34% Liberal
"Both the Justice Department and Trump disagreed; Pearce called it a small point of common ground that a former president had a right not to be tried until courts had determined whether or not he is immune from prosecution."
Negative
-4% Liberal
"Both the Justice Department and Trump disagreed; Pearce called it a small point of common ground that a former president had a right not to be tried until courts had determined whether or not he is immune from prosecution."
Negative
-4% Liberal

Bias Meter

Extremely
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-100%
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100%
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Bias Meter

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : "It's paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal laws," she said.
58% : Trump has said he plans to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court as well.
48% : If judges do so after ruling against Trump, the Supreme Court could, if it wishes, take up his legal challenge while letting the trial go forward.
45% : Trump was not required to attend the hearing but chose to be there.
43% : Sauer asked at the hearing for any ruling against Trump to be put on hold for appeals to the full D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
40% : Trump is seeking to delay his trial, set for March, until after the presidential election in which he is the leading Republican candidate.
39% : "A ruling by the D.C. Circuit will impact only one of the four prosecutions Trump faces.
37% : But Sauer later suggested that anything a president does while in office is likely to be an official duty, saying the fact that the indictment against Trump "focuses solely on acts before he left office" is "a telling indication that were dealing with official acts.
37% : But Trump is making similar arguments in state court in Georgia, where he is charged in a conspiracy that covers much of the same conduct.
36% : Trump argues that he cannot be tried for trying to overturn the 2020 election results because he was acquitted by the Senate of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
32% : "Would such a president be subject to criminal prosecution if he's not impeached?"D. John Sauer, representing Trump, insisted that for any crime connected to a president's "official duties," the "political process" of impeachment and conviction by the Senate "would have to occur" before prosecution."
32% : "Trump is arguing that the judges should use the same reasoning that led the Supreme Court to give Nixon immunity from civil lawsuits for official acts in 1982.
31% : Trump has made clear that if reelected, he plans to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies.
30% : But Pan posited that he had made a fatal concession here as well - by acknowledging that a former president could be charged with a crime after impeachment, Trump was forfeiting all his arguments about the danger of such prosecutions.
28% : "A different panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled last month that in the context of a lawsuit brought by police officers and lawmakers injured on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump does not have absolute immunity because campaigning to stay in office is not an official act.
28% : The judges also pressed both sides on a brief from the nonprofit American Oversight arguing that Trump does not have the right to appeal before trial because he is making a novel claim.
26% : Both Henderson and Pan noted that Trump was now making the exact opposite argument as the one he made at his impeachment trial, when his lawyers told senators that the criminal justice system was the appropriate venue for accountability.
20% : The hearing - which invoked references dating back to George Washington's tenure - showed how the historic prosecution of Trump has raised difficult questions largely avoided for more than two centuries about the limits of presidential power and the consequences of presidential crimes.
20% : Trump also claimed that he cannot be prosecuted by Smith because he was already tried and acquitted by Congress in his 2021 impeachment.
20% : "Both the Justice Department and Trump disagreed; Pearce called it "a small point of common ground" that a former president had a right not to be tried until courts had determined whether or not he is immune from prosecution.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.

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