Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media at one of his properties, 40 Wall Street, following closing arguments in his civil fraud trial on January 11, 2024 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump does not have presidential immunity from prosecution on criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Trump is expected to quickly ask the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court decision.
The legal battle over Trump’s immunity claim stems from the criminal election interference case prosecuted by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Trump is charged in that case with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. He has pleaded not guilty.
Defense lawyers, seeking to dismiss the case, had argued to Judge Tanya Chutkan that Trump enjoys “absolute immunity” from prosecution because the charges relate to official acts performed while he was president.
After Chutkan refused to dismiss the charges, Trump’s lawyers took the immunity issue to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This move stalled the case in the Chutkan court.
Smith, seeking to avoid a lengthy legal dispute that could delay Trump’s trial, implored the Supreme Court to quickly address the dispute. The high court refused to do so, placing the matter back in the hands of the appeal court.
The immunity battle has already strained the timeline of the case: While awaiting the appeals court’s ruling, Chutkan vacated the trial date previously scheduled for March 4.
Smith claims that Trump, using false claims of voter fraud as a pretext, sought to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory through multiple criminal conspiracies. These allegedly include organizing illegitimate pro-Trump voter slates in states won by Biden, attempting to use the Justice Department to conduct “sham” investigations into election crimes, and challenging the counting of legitimate electoral votes on January 6, 2021 .
Trump has called the case a “witch hunt” and said it is poised to damage his 2024 presidential campaign.
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