(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump has formally invoked presidential immunity in a bid to seek the dismissal of charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith regarding his efforts to question the 2020 presidential election.
In a filing submitted on Saturday, Trump urged the U.S. District of Appeals for the District of Columbia to overturn a lower court’s ruling, arguing that he enjoys presidential immunity concerning the 2020 election case.
JUST IN: Trump has filed his opening brief at the appeals court in support of his claim for presidential immunity from prosecution.
The arguments are familiar; The bigger question is whether the D.C. treats it as urgently as Smith wants them to. https://t.co/QYtMFT8xGg
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 24, 2023
“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,” Trump defense attorneys wrote in the 73-page filing.
“Before any single prosecutor can ask a court to sit in judgment of the President’s conduct, Congress must have approved of it by impeaching and convicting the President. That did not happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity,” they added.
Trump’s filing followed Smith’s request for an expedited hearing on the arguments. Initially, Smith unsuccessfully attempted to bypass the appeals court by seeking a Supreme Court decision on whether Trump had immunity from criminal prosecution concerning his efforts to question the results of the 2020 election.
However, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the emergency petition, dealing a blow to Smith’s efforts to maintain the March 4 trial date. This date is a day prior to Super Tuesday, when multiple states choose their Republican presidential candidate.
Trump has long argued that the March 4 trial date interferes with his bid to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, previously rejected Trump’s defense that he cannot be prosecuted because he questioned the election results as part of his former presidential duties.
If the appeals court uphold Chutkan’s ruling, Trump could appeal, bringing the case back the Supreme Court. Moreover, should the Supreme Court agree to hear the case, it would deliver a fatal blow to the March 4 trial.
On a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump hailed the Supreme Court’s decision not to halt the appeals process, slamming the criminal case as a broad effort to tank his presidential bid.
“This sick puppies team of Lowlifes and Radical Left Thugs could have brought this ‘case’ 3 years ago, and it would be long over by now,” Trump said. “No, they waited until right in the middle of my very successful campaign for President.”
He added, “If I were polling poorly, like everyone else against me is (including Crooked Joe Biden!), or, for some reason, I decided not to run, they never would have even brought this ridiculous and disgraceful lawsuit.”
