Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that Senate Democrats will push forward with a legislation aimed at revoking the immunity granted to former President Donald Trump under a recent Supreme Court decision.
Schumer, leveraging Congress's authority to regulate the judiciary, said that Democrats are developing a bill to reclassify Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results as "unofficial acts," according to NBC News.
If successful, this will remove the immunity from criminal prosecution provided by the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling.
"They incorrectly declared that former President Trump enjoys broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions he took while in office. They incorrectly declared that all future presidents are entitled to a breathtaking level of immunity so long as their conduct is ostensibly carried out in their official capacity as president," Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Criticizing the conservative justices, Schumer argued that the ruling effectively places Trump above the law.
"They have effectively placed a crown on Donald Trump's head, making him untouchable in many ways," he said.
"We believe that in America no president should be free to overturn an election against the will of the people, no matter what the conservative justices may believe."
Schumer also added that senators would continue to pursue other measures to curb potential abuses within the federal judiciary.
Support for this legislative push has been expressed by several Democrats, including Senators Chris Van Hollen and Sheldon Whitehouse.
They have advocated for incorporating language into the Supreme Court's annual funding bill that would mandate the adoption of an enforceable code of ethics.
It comes after criticism of conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who allegedly accepted substantial amounts of free travel and other gifts from affluent benefactors.
The Supreme Court's decision on July 1 provided Trump and future presidents substantial immunity from prosecution for crimes related to official acts.
However, it left the determination of whether Trump's actions to overturn the 2020 election results qualify as official acts to lower courts.
Some legal experts believe that this ruling might completely shield Trump from prosecution for his attempts to overturn the election results, including the events leading to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, by barring prosecutors from presenting actions tied to official conduct as evidence to a jury.
