Former US President Donald Trump who has been trying to delay his trial in the Election Subversion Case, has now urged the Court of Appeals to grant him immunity in the case arguing that he is protected under ‘presidential immunity’..
New Delhi: Former US President Donald Trump has urged a federal appeals court to throw out the federal election subversion criminal case in Washington, DC, arguing that he is protected under presidential immunity, CNN reported. Trump wants the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower-court ruling rejecting his claims of immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case. The appeals panel is weighing Trump’s request, which the Supreme Court on Friday refused to take up on an expedited basis, as Smith requested. Know all about Trump’s argument and the case..
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Trump Has Absolute Immunity Because…
Trump’s attorneys wrote on Saturday: “The Constitution establishes a powerful structural check to prevent political factions from abusing the formidable threat of criminal prosecution to disable the President and attack their political enemies.” As per CNN, the filing reiterates what the former president’s lawyers have repeatedly asserted: that Trump was working in his official capacity as president to “ensure election integrity” when he allegedly undermined the 2020 election results and therefore has immunity and that his indictment is unconstitutional because presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for “official acts” unless they are impeached and convicted by the Senate. “Before any single prosecutor can ask a court to sit in judgement of the President’s conduct, Congress must have approved of it by impeaching and convicting the President,” they wrote. “That did not happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity.”
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Former President Attempting To Delay His Trial
The former president has been attempting to delay his March 4 trial in the case, with his fight over the immunity claim underscoring those efforts, as per CNN. The appeals court has expedited its consideration of his appeal, and it’s set to hear oral arguments in the matter on January 9. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing his criminal case, temporarily paused all procedural deadlines in the case while the appeal played out.
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Trump Ineligible To Run For Presidency
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled recently that Donald Trump cannot appear on the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot next year because he is disqualified by engaging in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. The court ruled that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban,” CNN reported. As per CNN, the ruling will be placed on hold until January 4, pending Trump’s appeal to the US Supreme Court, which could settle the matter for the nation. The state Supreme Court decision only applies to Colorado but the historic ruling will roil the 2024 presidential campaign. Colorado election officials have said the matter needs to be settled by January 5, which is the statutory deadline to set the list of candidates for the GOP primary scheduled for March 5.
However, if the ruling is allowed to take effect, Colorado’s secretary of state may not list former president’s name on the 2024 presidential primary ballot for the state, nor may she count any write-in votes cast for him. An appeal would take the case to the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority and includes three justices nominated by Trump himself. The majority wrote in its unsigned opinion: “President Trump did not merely incite the insurrection. Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes. These actions constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.”
(Inputs from ANI)
