A progressive daily ledger of Trump-world self-owns, legal pain, policy blowback, and bad-faith chaos.
On the last Saturday of 2023, special counsel Jack Smith told the D.C. appeals court that Donald Trump’s bid for criminal immunity would blow a hole through constitutional accountability. The filing lands as Trump keeps betting that delay, not innocence, is his best defense.
A consequential Saturday filing sharpened the legal case against Trump’s immunity argument and made clear prosecutors see the claim as more than a procedural stall tactic. For the campaign, it was another reminder that the former president’s 2020-election conduct remains a live legal threat heading into 2024.
The year ends the way it started for Trump: with lawyers insisting the rules don’t apply to him, and judges being asked to test that proposition. That is not a great look when your whole pitch is law-and-order cosplay.
5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.
Special counsel Jack Smith asked the D.C. Circuit to reject Donald Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted for conduct tied to the effort to overturn the 2020 election. The filing says the former president has no immunity from the criminal case over those alleged acts.