With the Supreme Court on sideline for now, Trump’s lawyers press immunity claims before lower court

WASHINGTON– WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was acting within his role as president when he raised allegations of “alleged fraud and irregularity” in the 2020 election, his lawyers told a federal appeals court in arguing that he is immune from prosecution.

The lawyers also asserted in a filing Saturday night that the “historical consequences are tremendous” of the four-count indictment accusing Trump of conspiring to overturn the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

No other former president has ever been impeached; Trump has been impeached four times, in both state and federal courts, as he campaigns to retake the White House.

“The impeachment of President Trump threatens to launch cycles of politically motivated recrimination and prosecution that will plague our nation for many decades and will likely shatter the very foundation of our Republic: the trust of American citizens in an independent judicial system.” the lawyers wrote in a brief filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The question before the court, which has filed arguments for Jan. 9, is whether Trump is immune from prosecution for what defense attorneys say are official acts that fall within the outer perimeter of a president’s duties and responsibilities.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan earlier this month rejected that argument, siding with prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team and declaring that the office of the presidency “does not grant a get-out-of-jail-free pass for life.” .

The appeals court’s role in the dispute takes center stage after the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by Smith to expedite a decision on the immunity question. After Trump appealed Chutkan’s order, Smith urged swift intervention by the high court in an effort to obtain a quick decision that could keep the case on track for a trial scheduled 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 next month whether to uphold or overturn Chutkan’s decision.

In their latest filing, Trump’s lawyers say all of the acts Trump is accused of, including urging the Justice Department to investigate claims of voter fraud and telling state election officials that he believed the races had been tainted due to irregularities, they are presidential “par excellence.” acts that protect him from persecution.

“All reflect the efforts and duties of President Trump, directly as chief executive of the United States, to advocate and defend the integrity of the federal elections, consistent with his view that they were tainted by fraud and irregularity,” they said.

They also maintain that, under the Constitution, he cannot be criminally prosecuted for conduct for which he was already accused, but later acquitted, by Congress.

Federal prosecutors, by contrast, say Trump violated the law after the election by conspiring to disrupt the Jan. 6, 2021, electoral vote count, including pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the results and engaging in a plot organize lists of fake electors in battleground states won by Biden who would falsely attest that Trump had actually won those states.

Although Trump’s lawyers have suggested that he had good faith to worry that fraud had affected the election, courts across the country and Trump’s own attorney general and other government officials have found no evidence that was the case. .