Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation may be how every Trump associate permanently avoids prosecution.

[Cattledog]

A little-noticed Supreme Court case could let Trump foreclose on both federal and state charges against former staff.

If confirmed by the Senate to a Supreme Court seat, Judge Brett Kavanaugh immediately could be a crucial vote to decide whether the constitution bars any state’s efforts to prosecute Trump campaign officials and aides for state crimes if President Trump has already pardoned them for federal crimes.

Those who believe that the president will pardon Trump campaign officials who are indicted or convicted in federal court have long viewed state-level prosecutions as a back-up plan to bring them to justice. Specifically, the same actions that would support federal criminal charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller also would support a prosecution for violation of state criminal laws.

But a little-noticed case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could block this exact scenario, not only for those already found guilty or who pleaded guilty on federal charges, such as Paul Manafort or Michael Cohen, but for any Trump or White House aide whom Trump might preemptively pardon before Mueller files federal criminal charges.

The obscure case is Gamble v. United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court will decide it this term. Terrance Gamble, a convicted felon, was prosecuted by the state of Alabama for illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to prison. Subsequently, the federal government also indicted Gamble under federal law for the same act. Gamble moved to dismiss the federal indictment.

Full blog at:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-s-confirmation-may-be-how-every-trump-associate-ncna916681

[Anon-C]

1. Loll! Really NBC News... REALLY?

A little noticed case?

For shame!

[jodymarie aimee]

7. little noticed??

because you the TV media neglected to report on it...beer and rape were more ratings...

[PoliticAverse]

2. No it's not going to save Trump's associates, see debunking article....

Here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=217254

[katmondoo]

3. Why would the other 8 Justices give Kavanaugh control over the court

He is not the Chief Justice.

[still_one]

6. exactly. Kavanaugh is not the only justice

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. No, that's not how it works, NBC News.

If the court decides the Gamble case to mean double jeopardy applies to prevent the state from charging someone for something that is also a federal crime, and by inference making it possible to grant a pardon for a state crime, it won't mean people are unprosecutable and therefore pardonable unless the two crimes are identical in all elements. And that is very rarely the situation.

Double Jeopardy prevents successive prosecutions for the same crime, not related crimes. So — even if Kavanaugh swung the Supreme Court to overturn the Separate Sovereigns Doctrine, and even if Trump then went on a pardoning rampage to spare Ostrich Jacket and Idiot Lawyer and Junior and Dummy and so forth — Tump's pardon would only prevent state prosecution for the same crime that Trump pardoned them for federally. What's the "same crime?" Under the so-called Blockburger rule, two crimes are not the "same" if each one requires proof of an element that the other does not — that is, if each has at least one unique element. So: Trump's pardon can only prevent state prosecutions to the extent the state crimes have the same elements as the federal crimes he's pardoning. They usually don't.

https://www.popehat.com/2018/10/04/lawsplainer-no-kavanaughs-confirmation-wont-free-all-of-trumps-crimimous-minions-through-an-obscure-double-jeopardy-case/

[Imperialism Inc.]

5. If you want to hear a liberal lawyers take on this theory then

Check out the open arguments podcast. He gives a full rundown on why this idea is silly. Starting with the fact that the primary reason the case is being heard is because of Ruth Ginsburg's interest in revisiting the principle. The trump admin already submitted a strong defense of keeping the dual sovereignty principle and in fact argued the court shouldn't even hear the case.

OA215: IS GAMBLE V US THE REAL REASON BEHIND KAVANAUGH?https://openargs.com/oa215-is-gamble-v-us-the-real-reason-behind-kavanaugh/quote