Trump’s lawyers deliver opening brief in bid to toss out Jan. 6 case following SCOTUS win
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Fresh off its win at the Supreme Court, Donald Trump’s legal team made its opening brief late Saturday to an appeals court, seeking to quash his federal election subversion indictment with claims of presidential immunity.
In a late Saturday filing, Trump’s team effectively argued that the courts can not hold him accountable for carrying out his official duties while president, and therefore, his four-count indictment for alleged 2020 election subversion must be scrapped.
“President Trump has absolute immunity from prosecution for his official acts as President. The indictment alleges only official acts, so it must be dismissed,” Trump’s lawyer John Sauer wrote in a lengthy briefing to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Friday, the Supreme Court declined to expedite the case and leapfrog over the appeals court, marking a significant win for Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith asked the high court to fast-track consideration of the matter, contending that the Supreme Court was always going to have the final say because the DC Circuit Court of Appeals’ eventual ruling would almost certainly be challenged by either of the two parties.
The Supreme Court did not provide an explanation for why it didn’t grant Smith’s request for “writ of certiorari” to speed up consideration of the matter.
Smith wanted to avoid delaying Trump’s trial — which had been set for March 4, 2024, one day before the Super Tuesday contest — in which 16 states hold either primaries or caucuses.
Left largely unsaid were concerns that delaying the election subversion case could benefit Trump.
If he buys time and then recaptures the presidency in 2024, convicting him on the charges may be futile, given a president’s pardon power and protections from prosecution while in office.
District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s four-count indictment in the subversion case, rejected the presidential immunity claims earlier this month and determined that the 77-year-old was not entitled to a “lifelong get-out-of-jail-free pass.”
That prompted Trump’s lawyers to file an appeal to the DC court, which then triggered Smith’s unsuccessful bid to drag in the Supreme Court.
Chutkan has put “any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial” on pause amid the appeal.
Trump’s claims of presidential immunity tread on a largely untested and highly debatable area of constitutional law.
Sauer took note of Trump’s impeachment that came in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and suggested that prosecuting him over those actions now amounts to “double jeopardy” — referencing a clause in the Fifth Amendment that prevents individuals from being prosecuted twice over the same crime.
“A President who is acquitted by the Senate cannot be prosecuted for the acquitted conduct. The Clause’s plain meaning, its historical context, and the decisive weight of authority from key commentators all confirm that a single unelected prosecutor lacks authority to second-guess the judgment of the U.S. Congress,” Sauer wrote.
With just over a week left of his presidency in 2021, Trump was impeached and then acquitted of incitement of insurrection.
Smith’s four-count indictment of Trump largely centers on a conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding on Jan. 6, 2021, and the coinciding legal schemes to thwart the election.
Prosecutors have previously countered the notion that Trump’s election machinations — such as his allies’ bids to furnish alternate slates of electors or his directive to then-Vice President Mike Pence to decertify the election — were part of his official duties as president.
Given the time sensitivity of the case, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals set oral arguments in the matter for Jan. 9, 2024.
Briefs are required to be filed by Jan. 2, 2024.
If Trump is found to have presidential immunity, that could also have ripple effects on his 13-count Georgia election tampering case as well.
Should legal wrangling over presidential immunity delay the federal 2020 subversion case, then Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money case against Trump might become the first of his four indictments to head to trial.
That trial is currently scheduled to commence on March 25, 2024. The case features 34 counts for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments meant to hide damaging information about him.
Trump is facing a total of 91 criminal counts spanning across four indictments. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing in all of them.
The courts are poised to grapple with a slew of Trump questions ahead of the 2024 election.
Last Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the GOP primary ballot — a decision his campaign has vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
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