John, It’s all of us regular people saying we don’t want this in our society, and we’re going to change how we speak about the other side to make it less common.” CREW remains committed to doing just that. That is why we have consistently acted to demand accountability for the most powerful—not to advance political positions or to justify heated rhetoric, but to stand up for our system of checks and balances, anchored in real facts and law. Donald Trump, the Supreme Court, members of Congress—and every American—are accountable to the law. That is still true, despite recent devastating court decisions. The decision in the classified documents case earlier this week is a dangerous outlier with no basis in the law, but it should be and will be appealed by the Department of Justice. The fallout from the Supreme Court presidential immunity case is much less clear, and the possibilities are alarming, but I can tell you with certainty that there are still paths for accountability for any future president. Groups like CREW can and will continue to identify violations of criminal law by presidents, though former presidents may not be able to be indicted for official acts. The boundaries of the Court’s decision have not yet been tested—though they likely will be soon. We will not stop calling out misconduct and looking for ways to ensure appropriate criminal accountability. Meanwhile, presidents can still be sued for civil violations of the law—just like Trump was sued for business fraud, defamation and violations of the Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution. Presidents are also still subject to vigorous oversight by Congress, and Congress should act now to expand its oversight powers to rebalance the scales in the wake of this immunity decision. Congress can and should also pass important reforms to prevent presidential abuses of power, as we laid out in a recent piece. Believe me, I know that the repeated setbacks are frustrating and disappointing and that we’re in a particularly uncertain time. But advocating for accountability for the most powerful has never been easy, and we have not wavered for a second in our belief that there is a genuine path forward for democracy and the rule of law. We’re not giving up now—indeed, now is the time to redouble our commitment to this work. Thank you for reading and supporting CREW’s work, Noah Bookbinder, President CREW P.S. We’re in the middle of a match campaign. A generous donor has agreed to match up to $100,000 in donations to CREW this month. If you can, consider making a matched donation today to support our continued accountability work. Thank you! If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
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