Former President Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court to dismiss the federal election subversion case against him on the grounds of being protected by presidential immunity, just days after the Supreme Court ruled it would not weigh in.
Trump asked the appeals court on Saturday to overturn the ruling from a lower court that rejected his claims that his actions related to the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021, cannot be criminally prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith. The appeals panel is now weighing the former president's request.
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On Friday, the Supreme Court declined without comment to intervene in Trump's 2020 election subversion case after Smith asked the justices to step over the typical appeals process. The question of whether Trump is protected by presidential immunity is central to the criminal prosecution case in Washington, D.C.
Trump's filing to the appeals court repeats similar claims asserted by his lawyers — that Trump was working to "ensure election integrity" in his official capacity as president and therefore should have immunity in Smith's case. Trump is accused of allegedly seeking to overturn the 2020 election, which led to the riot at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The former president's lawyers argue that the criminal indictment against their client is unconstitutional, as presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for "official acts" unless they are convicted by the Senate or impeached.
“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’s attorneys wrote in the filing Saturday, per CNN.
"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,” the lawyers continued. “That did not happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity.”
The lawyers also warned that Trump's indictment “threatens to launch cycles of recrimination and politically motivated prosecution that will plague our Nation for many decades to come.”
Oral arguments in the appeals court are slated for Jan. 9. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's 2020 criminal case, has temporarily paused all procedural deadlines in the case while the appeal plays out.
Once that court rules, the Supreme Court is expected to take up the case quickly. If the high court does get involved, Trump's federal election subversion case will likely be delayed from its scheduled March 4 date.
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Trump faces four counts in this legal case. Two of the charges stem from the disruption of Congress’s certification of the electoral vote on Jan. 6. The third charge alleges a scheme to defraud the United States through a sustained effort to impede the collection, counting, and certification of votes in the 2020 election. The fourth charge accuses Trump of a conspiracy to deprive citizens of a right secured under federal law, or the right to have one's votes counted.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to not only the counts in this case but to the total of 91 charges he faces across four total criminal indictments against him.