After a lifetime of legal action, the president is counting on “my judges” to defend him against an array of threats, from subpoenas to impeachment.
From the start of his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump made clear that he saw the courts not as an independent branch of government, but as one more weapon in a president’s arsenal. By Marc Fisher Marc Fisher Senior editor reporting on a wide range of topics Email Bio Follow April 26 at 1:48 PM When Donald Trump perceives an attack, he hits back, and his weapon of choice has long been the courts. He threatens legal action himself and through his lawyers, in private missives and in public blasts.
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly , a member of the Oversight Committee, accused the president of “triggering a constitutional crisis.” Of course, battles between Congress and presidents have wound up in court before, notably in the final stages of the confrontation between lawmakers and President Richard Nixon. And presidents have often spoken of the Supreme Court in decidedly political terms; Franklin Roosevelt even sought to expand the court’s roster to pack it with ideologically like-minded justices.
From the start of his 2016 campaign, Trump made clear that he saw the courts not as an independent branch of government, but as one more weapon in a president’s arsenal. “We’re going to have great judges, conservative, all picked by the Federalist Society,” he told Breitbart News in June 2016. “If it’s my judges, you know how they’re gonna decide,” Trump told an evangelical Christian audience a week later, answering a question about Second Amendment gun rights.
Most often, his threats to take opponents to court are just that — words intended to intimidate or silence an enemy, rather than a precursor to any actual filing of a lawsuit. Trump filed a libel lawsuit in 2006 against journalist Timothy O’Brien, right, which was dismissed. Other times, he sued as personal punishment. In 2006, he filed a libel suit against Tim O’Brien, the author of a biography that concluded Trump’s net worth was not the $6 billion he claimed, but rather “somewhere between $150 million and $250 million.
The lawsuit sought compensation for the “harm done to her, her commercial brand and her business opportunities.” Two months later, the Mail settled the case, apologizing to the first lady and paying a reported $2.9 million in damages.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why the Infamous Trump Tower Meeting Didn't Take Down TrumpThe 20-minute gathering in Manhattan seemed to have everything: Donald Trump Jr. meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer. In Mueller’s final report, however, the Trump Tower meeting is little more than a blip, just one of a host of incidents that drew his attention.
Read more »
President Trump, Trump Org sue House Oversight Committee chairman over subpoenaJUST IN: Pres. Trump and the Trump Organization file suit against House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings, seeking relief from his subpoena request for the president’s financial records.
Read more »
Analysis | Jared Kushner’s remarkably unremarkable effort to downplay Russian interferenceAnalysis: Jared Kushner’s remarkably unremarkable effort to downplay Russian interference
Read more »
After Trump tweet, UK spy agency says claim it spied on Trump is 'utterly ridiculous'Trump on Wednesday tweeted that a former CIA analyst, Larry Johnson, had accused Britain of spying on the Trump campaign.
Read more »
After Trump tweet, UK spy agency says claim it spied on Trump is utterly ridiculousBritain's main eavesdropping agency on Wednesday said allegations that it had been asked by the Obama administration to spy on Donald Trump after the 2016 presidential election were utterly ridiculous and should be ignored. Trump on Wednesday tweeted that a former CIA analyst, Larry Johnson, had
Read more »
Trump GOP primary challenger: 'If Donald Trump is an American patriot, he should resign'Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld called on President Donald Trump to resign Wednesday, writing in an op-ed that the country would be 'better served with a President Mike Pence.'
Read more »
Democrats probe Homeland Security oustings after Trump adviser Stephen Miller refuses to testify to CongressThe White House has said that the senior policy adviser to Trump is “absolutely immune” from congressional testimony.
Read more »