Internet shreds Trump's lawyers as they end up misquoting George Washington in presidential immunity bid

WASHINGTON, DC: In an attempt to prove that the Founding Fathers would have approved of former President Donald Trump's "absolute immunity" from prosecution, his lawyers quoted George Washington, according to CNN.

His attorneys cited Washington's 'Farewell Address to the People of the United States', a foundational and historic message written by the first POTUS, to argue that the historic and significant warning issued against factions or political parties, should help shield Trump from prosecution for election interference.

What did George Washington actually say?

In a brief filed before Thursday, April 25 oral arguments at the US Supreme Court, attorney John Sauer said Washington warned against "[t]he alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities."

However, former CNN anchor John Avlon argued that Trump’s lawyers cut Washington off and that his thought does not end where they put the period.

The full farewell address paragraph reads, "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty."

Despite Washington stating that the alternating between parties is "a frightful despotism," he further argued that things will lead to something much worse - "permanent despotism" where a person is elevated "on the ruins of public liberty."

Avlon reads that paragraph as a clear warning against individuals placing party before the nation and seeking to do things like overturn elections to stay in power, not a tortured and veiled reference to justify presidential immunity. 

Avlon said, "Washington was warning against someone precisely like Donald Trump."

Notably, Trump's attorneys contend that the lack of prosecutions of previous presidents proves that no president should face legal action. 

Following the Supreme Court oral arguments, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin stated on CNN that there is one key area in which Trump is unlike any other POTUS. She said, "His legal problems relate to the failure of the former president to accept the loss of his presidency, something that every other president has been willing to do."

Internet trolls Donald Trump's lawyers for misquoting George Washington

One wrote, "Of course. If they’re breathing, they’re lying. All of them," and another added, "It was just an alternative quote The MAGA way - can’t find the fact you like - make it up."

A person said, "There is a difference between 'mis-quoting' and fraudulent presentation," while someone else remarked, "At this point, isn’t that expected?"

An individual expressed, "Gasp. A magat cherry-picked only the most self-serving part of a sentence?!?!? Say it ain’t so?!?!?" 

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.