A Washington DC court determined this Tuesday that former President Donald Trump does not have presidential immunity facing charges for his attempt to reverse his 2020 electoral defeat e instigating the assault on the Capitol in 2021.
“For the purposes of this criminal case, former President Trump has become a Trump citizen, with all the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has noted.
For this reason, “any executive immunity that might have protected him while serving as president no longer protects you against this processing“, the court detailed.
The ruling is a blow to Trump’s defense, which argued that the conduct alleged by special counsel Jack Smith was part of his official duties as president and, therefore, exempted him from criminal responsibility.
Presumably, the defense of the New York magnate will appeal the ruling to elevate the case to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The argument of presidential immunity has become a recurring weapon for Trump’s lawyers, who seek to delay the judicial calendar as much as possible to prevent it from coinciding with the November presidential election racein which he starts as the great favorite for the Republican nomination.
This Tuesday’s judicial decision comes after Trump asked the Court of Appeals on December 24 to annul the decision of a lower court judge who at the time rejected the immunity claims put forward by his team of lawyers.
In the brief to the appeals court, Trump’s legal team noted that the accusation is unconstitutional because presidents cannot be prosecuted criminally unless they are first convicted by the Senate.
“Under our system of separation of powers, the judiciary cannot judge the official acts of a president,” said the former president’s lawyers, who alleged that on the day of the events Trump was fulfilling his “official duties” and monitored the integrity of the elections held in 2020.
Four criminal charges
On February 2, federal judge Tanya Chutkan of Washington, who is handling the case of the assault on the Capitol, postponed the start date of the trial, which was to start on March 4, pending the resolution announced this Tuesday.
Washington is one of the four criminal indictments of Trump in various courts. The Republican magnate is charged in a Georgia state court for allegedly leading a mafia plot to alter the results of the elections in that state, where Trump lost against the current president, Joe Biden.
In New York he has been charged with alleged irregular payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence during the 2016 election campaign.
Meanwhile, in Florida he is accused of illegally removing and keeping classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago mansion that he removed from the White House after leaving power.
This will be a key week for Trump, since the Supreme Court will study on February 8 whether the 14th Amendment of the Constitution disqualifies the former president from participating in the elections given that several states accuse him of having led an “insurrection” in 2021.
2024-02-06 17:32:11
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