Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr criticized Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent regarding presidential immunity, following a Supreme Court ruling on presidents’ immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.
Barr clarified the delineation between official and unofficial conduct, emphasizing the restrictions on a president’s authority and the need for a thorough analysis in legal proceedings.
“There’s absolute immunity when he’s acting directly under the constitution, carrying out a function under the constitution,” Barr said.
“There’s presumptive immunity when he performs an official act, and the government has the burden of showing that it can prosecute him for that without impairing the executive function. And finally, there’s no immunity for unofficial or private acts. And I think the — and the practical effect of this is that the district court is gonna do what it really should have done at the beginning, which is the government really should have had it do, which is do the analysis so that the facts are going up to the Supreme Court.”
He refuted Sotomayor’s portrayal of the ruling, highlighting examples of unauthorized presidential actions she mentioned, such as fabricating evidence or using military force against political opponents, which Barr deemed unrealistic and unfounded.
“He has the right to go and tell the Department of Justice to investigate something, but an example used by Justice Sotomayor was, ‘Oh, then he can fabricate evidence, give the evidence to the department, and use that evidence to indict them.’ He doesn’t have authority to fabricate evidence,” Barr said.
“That’s not carrying out an executive function. And the worst example, I think — the one that makes no sense whatsoever is that he can use SEAL Team 6 to kill a political opponent. The president has the authority to defend the country against foreign enemies — armed conflict and so forth. He has the authority to direct the justice system against criminals at home. He doesn’t have the authority to go and assassinate people.”
“So whether he uses the SEAL Team or a private hitman, it doesn’t matter,” he added. “It’s not a carrying out of his authority. So all these horror stories really are false.”
