Hakeem Jeffries Blasts Supreme Court Over Trump Immunity, Defends Comments to CNN’s Pamela Brown
CNN anchor Pamela Brown pressed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries during a Monday segment on whether he was “undermining faith” in the Supreme Court by shaming conservative justices.
Jeffries pointed fingers at the six conservative justices for President Donald Trump’s alleged destruction of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) integrity and allowed him to act like a king. Brown then asked Jeffries point-blank whether he is “undermining” the public’s faith in the highest court of the land during a segment on “The Situation Room.”
“We should also blame the conservative justices on the Supreme Court for all of the things that we see happening,” Jeffries said. “Because they basically gave this president blanket presidential immunity in a country where the framers of the Constitution said, ‘we don’t want a king.’ But they’ve effectively enabled Donald Trump at times to behave just like a king. And that needs to be revisited as well. The Supreme Court, shame on them for what they’ve done to this country and unleashing this out of control behavior. That needs to be reversed.”
“Let me just follow up with you on that, though. By saying that, are you undermining trust and faith in a critical institution in this democracy? … You’re saying they’ve unleashed this, the justices have done this, they made him king,” Brown asked. “Are you undermining faith in an important institution in this democracy?”
The Supreme Court ruled in July 2024 that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts” taken while in office. The ruling responded to former special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump, which alleged that the then-Republican nominee engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election results at the end of his first term.
Jeffries then said that he is “undermining faith” in the justices’ decision in the immunity decision, claiming that the decision “had no basis in law.”
“No, what I’m undermining faith in is a decision that had no basis in the Constitution, no basis in law and no basis in how the framers envisioned this democratic republic. We broke away from the notion of a king, a singular figure, and created three separate and co-equal branches of government so that no one would have the ability to unleash unchecked power and no one could be above the law,” Jeffries said. “And it’s reasonable, I think, to ask the question, ‘why was that decision issued and what are the consequences that have flowed from that decision over the last eight-and-a-half months.’ That’s what I’m questioning.”
The minority leader responded to the resignation of federal prosecutor Erik Siebert, who Trump had pressured to step down after he did not press any charges against Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James in connection to a mortgage fraud investigation. Documents have shown that James may have made false claims about her residences.
In June 2022, suspected would-be assassin Nicholas Roske allegedly attempted to kill Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh outside of his residence in Maryland. The attempted assassination occurred following the public’s outrage over the leaked decision in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion laws back to the states. Roske currently identifies as transgender.
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