Chief Justice John Roberts strong-armed his fellow Supreme Court judges into allowing him the key role in cases involving Donald Trump, leaked memos reveal.
The conservative judge took the lead in March’s case on whether states could remove the former president from their ballots over his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Roberts demanded a unanimous decision from the bench according to memos leaked to the New York Times.
He also took charge of the case concerning prosecution of the January 6 rioters himself from Justice Samuel Alito after his fellow conservative was embroiled in a row about his wife flying the Stars and Stripes upside down from their home.
Roberts told his colleagues they should take the case after an appellate court ruled that Trump did not enjoy presidential immunity for his alleged role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
‘As I read it, it says simply a former president can be prosecuted because he’s being prosecuted,’ he said of the lower court’s judgment.
And he made no secret of the what he thought his colleagues should decide.
‘I think it likely that we will view the separation of powers analysis differently,’ he wrote in a February memo.
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