Former president Donald Trump addresses auto workers in Clinton Township, Mich., September 27, 2023.(Rebecca Cook/Reuters)
Published December 24, 2023
Attorneys representing former president Donald Trump on Saturday night asked a federal appeals court to throw out special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal case alleging that he subverted the 2020 election, claiming presidential immunity.
In a 71-page filing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, his lawyers said the conduct Smith is targeting, namely Trump’s pressuring of state and federal officials to reverse the 2020 election results, was permitted action in his capacity as president for the purpose of ensuring a fair election. His legal team asked the appeals court to reverse a lower court’s ruling that rejected the immunity argument, which the former president has invoked in the hopes of protecting himself from federal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Under our system of separated powers, the Judicial Branch cannot sit in judgment over a President’s official acts,” The lawyers wrote. “The indictment against President Trump is unlawful and unconstitutional. It must be dismissed.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to four federal charges in the case in August: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
In mid-December, Smith made an expedited appeal to the Supreme Court on the question of Trump’s immunity claim.
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SOURCE: www.nationalreview.com
RELATED: Trump asks appeals court to toss election subversion case
Published December 24, 2023
Former President Trump’s lawyers asked a federal appeals court to toss his 2020 election subversion case in Washington, D.C., just one day after the Supreme Court declined special counsel Jack Smith’s request to take up Trump’s argument that his actions are protected from criminal prosecution under presidential immunity.
In a filing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday night, Trump’s attorneys reiterated their push for the appeals court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that rejected the former president’s immunity claim.
Trump introduced the argument in October, saying his actions leading up to and surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack are protected by presidential immunity.
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled earlier this month that “the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
The former president is facing four felony counts alleging he was involved in a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and stood at the center of a campaign to block the certification of votes on Jan. 6.
In the latest filing, Trump’s lawyers once again argued Trump’s conduct constitutes official acts to “advocate for and defend the intensity of the federal election, in accord with his view it was tainted by fraud and irregularity.”
Arguing the indictment is “unlawful and unconstitutional,” Trump’s lawyers said he must first be impeached and convicted by the Senate before he can be criminally prosecuted for his official acts as president.
“Before any single prosecutor can ask a court to sit in judgment of the President’s conduct, Congress must have approved of it by impeaching and convicting the President. That did not happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Trump asks appeals court to toss election case on immunity grounds
The appeal followed the Supreme Court’s rejection of expediting the case, where Donald Trump argued for presidential immunity.
Published December 24, 2023
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked a federal appeals court in Washington to dismiss a case that claims there was inference in the 2020 election.
His lawyers say he is immune from prosecution, arguing that former or current presidents can’t be criminally prosecuted for official acts unless impeached and convicted by the Senate.
They also claimed Trump was working to “ensure election integrity” and that the indictment was “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
“I think any sweeping argument made to any court, interim appellate Supreme Court, on the part of Donald Trump has to be expected. The sweeping claims of absolute immunity, I think, will ultimately, even with the Supreme Court, not hold. But it’s going to take a while to get there. That’s the problem,” said Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Trump’s latest legal challenge comes days after the Supreme Court denied special counsel Jack Smith’s request to immediately hear the case and Trump’s argument that his actions are protected from criminal prosecutors under presidential immunity.
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SOURCE: www.10news.com
