Trump ramps up plans for new police powers — except the ones investigating him: analyst

Former President Donald Trump has an "absurd" new plan to expand the rights of American police, even as he rages against those investigating him, legal experts told The New York Times Thursday.

Trump's new proposal would "indemnify" on-duty police officers, essentially shielding them from misconduct lawsuits, despite already high immunity standards that make legal cases against officers hard to win, Michael Gold reported.

Legal experts told Gold the proposal doesn't make much sense.

“The idea that officers need indemnification is frankly absurd, because they already have it,” said Benjamin Cardozo Law School professor Alexander Reinert.

“Officers virtually never pay anything in settlements or judgments entered against them,” said UCLA Law professor Joanna Schwartz, noting police departments and insurance companies usually make payouts, not the officers.

That didn't stop Trump from saying in a recent speech, “We are going to indemnify them, so they don’t lose their wife, their family, their pension and their job."

Nor did his professed support of law enforcement stop Trump from "raging" against federal and state law enforcement officials leading the four criminal cases against him, Gold notes.

"Even as he proclaims his steadfast support for rank-and-file officers, he has been raging against federal and state law enforcement officials who have led the four criminal cases against him, resulting in 91 felony charges," wrote Gold.

While Trump does have a strong support base among police, a pair of Capitol Police officers injured during the Jan. 6 attack have filed suit against him for, they say, inciting the violence, Gold reports.

"Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled this week that there was enough evidence that he engaged in insurrection to disqualify him from holding office again," Gold notes.

Meanwhile, Trump has escalated his attack on special counsel Jack Smith and Justice Department prosecutors over the criminal cases, warning there will be "repercussions" if the DOJ doesn't withdraw the charges.