Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday he is hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court “puts a stop” to what he called an “abuse of power” aimed against former President Trump after the high court announced it will weigh whether the former president can be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“I’m glad the Supreme Court is taking the case. I have to say what we’ve seen in the past year — about the targeting from the left, the targeting from Democrat prosecutors of Donald Trump — has been an enormous abuse of power,” Cruz said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to take up the issue of whether Trump is immune from charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Trump’s legal team is arguing his actions leading up to and surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack are protected from criminal prosecution by presidential immunity.
“We’ve never in our history had a president or former president indicted, and in the past year, Donald Trump has been indicted four different times by both the Biden Justice Department and by two Democrat [district attorneys], and I think this is an abuse of power and a persecution of President Trump. And I very much hope that the Supreme Court puts a stop to it,” Cruz continued.
Trump currently faces four felony counts in the Department of Justice’s Jan. 6 case that alleges he was involved in a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and stood at the center of a campaign to block the certification of votes on Jan. 6.
The Supreme Court’s order will keep the proceedings for the case on pause for now, handing special counsel Jack Smith a blow following his past efforts to keep the case’s time frame on track.
When asked how he thinks the Supreme Court will rule on this case, Cruz said: “We’ll see how the arguments play out. … The arguments on both sides.”
The Texas Republican pointed to the Supreme Court’s separate case, weighing whether Trump can be kicked off state ballots under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection ban. That case is an appeal to a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that stated Trump participated in an insurrection through his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The nation’s high court began hearing oral arguments for this case earlier this month.
“Having listened to that argument, I am absolutely confident, 100 percent confident, the Supreme Court is going to reverse Colorado, and I think there’s a real chance that the Supreme Court might do so unanimously. I hope that they do.”
Cruz said he believes it’s up to voters to decide the issue of immunity and said, “I hope the court steps in and says, listen, elections should be decided by voters at the ballot box and not by judges, not by prosecutors.”
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