Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump looks on during a campaign event on December 19, 2023 in Waterloo, Iowa.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Donald Trump was acting in his role as president when he asserted claims about “alleged fraud and irregularities” in the 2020 election, his lawyers told a federal appeals court, arguing that he is immune from persecution.
The lawyers also argued in a filing late Saturday that the “historical fallout is enormous” from the four-count indictment charging Trump with plotting to overturn the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
No other former president has been indicted; Trump has been indicted four times, in both state and federal courts, as he campaigned to take back the White House.
“President Trump’s indictment threatens to launch cycles of politically motivated recriminations and prosecutions that will plague our Nation for decades to come and will likely erode the very foundation of our Republic – the trust of American citizens in an independent judicial system,” the lawyers wrote in a brief filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
At issue before the court, which has set arguments for Jan. 9, is whether Trump is immune from prosecution for what defense lawyers say are official actions that fall within the outer perimeter. of the duties and responsibilities of a president.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected that argument earlier this month, siding with prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team and declaring that the office of the presidency “does not provide a lifetime ‘get-out- of-jail-free’ pass.”
The appeals court’s role in the dispute took center stage after the Supreme Court on Friday denied a request from Smith to fast-track a decision on the safety question. After Trump appealed Chutkan’s order, Smith urged swift intervention from the high court to get a swift decision that could keep the case on track for a trial set to begin March 4.
But with that request denied, the two sides are advancing their arguments before the appeals court, where a three-judge panel will decide early next month whether to uphold or overrule Chutkan’s decision. .
In their latest filing, Trump’s lawyers said all of the actions Trump is accused of — including urging the Justice Department to investigate claims of voter fraud and telling state election officials he believed were tainted of irregularities the contests – are “quintessential” presidential actions that protect him from prosecution.
“They all reflect the efforts and duty of President Trump, as Chief Executive of the United States, to promote and defend the integrity of the federal election, in accordance with his view that it has been tainted by fraud and irregularities,” they said.
They also argue that, under the Constitution, he cannot be charged criminally for conduct for which he has been impeached, but then acquitted, by Congress.
Federal prosecutors, by contrast, say Trump violated post-election law by planning to disrupt the Jan. 6, 2021, electoral vote count, including hitting then-Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the results and by participating in a scheme to fix fake elector records in battleground states won by Biden that would falsely prove that Trump actually won those states.
Although Trump’s lawyers have suggested he has good reason to worry that fraud affected the election, courts across the country and Trump’s own attorney general and other government officials have found no evidence of that what happened.
