Lawyers for the presidential candidate asserted, “The indictment against President Trump is illegal and unconstitutional. It must be dismissed.”
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump demanded Saturday that the Court of Appeals dismiss his 2020 election subversion case in Washington, D.C., again arguing that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution.
“The structure of our government, the text of the Constitution and its early commentators, common law immunity doctrines, our political history, analogous Supreme Court immunity doctrines, and policy considerations rooted in the separation of powers dictate that no President, current or former, can be criminally prosecuted for his official acts unless he is first indicted and convicted by the Senate,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a brief to the D.C. Circuit, according to NBC News.
They added: “Nor can a president face criminal prosecution based on conduct for which he was acquitted by the U.S. Senate. The indictment against President Trump is illegal and unconstitutional. It must be dismissed.”
The request by the former Republican president’s lawyers comes just a day after the Supreme Court rejected special prosecutor Jack Smith’s request to accept Trump’s argument that his actions are shielded from criminal prosecution under presidential immunity.
Since October, the New York mogul has argued before the court that his actions leading up to and surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack are protected by presidential immunity.
However, federal Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled earlier this month that “the United States has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifetime pass to get out of jail.”
It won’t be until January 9 that the DC Circuit will hear oral arguments, according to NBC News information. Once that happens, then the Supreme Court could quickly decide whether to take up the case.
The case challenging a former president’s immunity from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office has reached the Supreme Court.
In his petition, Smith argues that the issue is fundamental to democracy.
Trump’s lawyers, in response, argue that Smith failed to provide compelling reasons for the Supreme Court’s immediate intervention. They stress the importance of letting the process run its course in the appeals court before higher intervention.
The Supreme Court, in ruling on Friday, generated mixed reactions. Trump called Smith’s request a “desperate attempt to short-circuit our Great Constitution” in his Truth Social platform.
The former president said he looks forward to the arguments before the appeals court, while reiterating unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 presidential election.