American federal prosecutors on Thursday resisted former US President Donald Trump’s attempt to drop charges against him on the grounds of “absolute immunity” he said he enjoyed for actions taken during his tenure in the White House.
“No one in this country, not even the president, is above the law,” special prosecutor Jack Smith’s team wrote in a 54-page document to the judge presiding over the case, urging denial of Mr. Trump’s request.
Mr Trump, the Republican favorite for the 2024 presidential election, faces trial in the capital from March next year. He is accused of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In early October, the ex-president’s lawyers submitted a motion to federal judge Tanya Chutkan, demanding that “the court should permanently dismiss the charges based on the president’s immunity.”
Citing a Supreme Court case involving former President Richard Nixon, his lawyers argued that the law guarantees the president “absolute immunity” “for actions that fall within the ‘external scope’ of his official responsibility.”
“The current administration has impeached President Trump for actions that fall not only within the ‘external scope’ but also at the core of his official responsibilities as president,” they said.
Because as head of the executive branch, they argued, Mr. Trump had a responsibility to “ensure the integrity of the election” and had the right to challenge the results of the 2020 vote.
Donald Trump, like more than 330 million other Americans, “is subject to federal criminal laws,” the special prosecutor’s team countered, adding: “No court has ever discussed the existence of absolute criminal immunity for former presidents.”
Experts say Trump’s request is unlikely to succeed, but it could delay the start of the trial if it ends up having to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump is the first former president of the United States to be criminally charged.
The legal calendar promises to be busy for the Republican billionaire. He is also being prosecuted in New York state courts in a case alleging accounting fraud related to payments to purchase the silence of an adult film actress, as well as in Georgia related to the 2020 election.