Donald Trump on Tuesday predicted “chaos in the country” if the American judiciary does not drop the case against him, following a hearing in the federal appeals court in Washington on his request for criminal immunity as a former president.
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The big favorite in the Republican primaries for the November presidential election, which begins on January 15th in the state of Iowa, is trying with his numerous appeals to postpone his various criminal proceedings as late as possible, and in any case after the vote.
The three judges of the Washington appeals court expressed skepticism about this immunity request, which aims to overturn the indictment of Donald Trump for attempting to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
As he announced on Monday, the person concerned went to court without any obligation to attend the debates, which lasted more than an hour, without speaking himself.
Mr. Trump, who pleaded not guilty in the case on August 3, 2023, then again accused the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden of trying to eliminate him from the presidential race through these prosecutions and predicted “chaos in the country”.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over the trial scheduled for March 4, rejected his request for immunity in December, saying no text protected a former president from prosecution.
“Allowing a president to be prosecuted for his official actions would open a Pandora’s box from which this country may never recover,” Donald Trump’s attorney John Sauer argued Tuesday.
He raised the possibility of impeaching former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama for providing false information about weapons available to Iraq in 2003 and for liquidating jihadists through drone strikes.
Donald Trump's defense claims “absolute immunity” for his actions in the White House. It cites Supreme Court jurisprudence from the 1980s on civil lawsuits against former President Richard Nixon.
His lawyers also argue that he cannot be charged in this case because he was acquitted in the parliamentary impeachment trial against him over the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which hundreds of his supporters tried to certify Joe Biden's victory to prevent Biden.
Supreme Court
When one of the judges, Florence Pan, asked him whether sending special forces to assassinate a political opponent or selling presidential pardons fell under these official acts, John Sauer replied “yes.”
“It would be paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to ensure the faithful observance of the law authorizes him to violate the criminal law,” replied the court's president, Karen Lecraft Henderson.
“There have never been allegations that a president, through private individuals and using the levers of power, attempted to fundamentally undermine the democratic republic and the electoral system,” argued James Pearce, a member of special counsel Jack Smith’s team investigating the case.
In her decision, Judge Chutkan concluded that the Nixon precedent did not apply to criminal prosecutions and that impeachment proceedings were not criminal proceedings.
However, the appeal put the proceedings on hold, which Jack Smith feared could derail the trial plan.
In December, the Supreme Court rejected the special prosecutor's request for an emergency ruling on the matter, which would have shortened the traditional appeals process and associated delays.
But whatever the appeals court's decision, in all likelihood those parties it finds wrong will take the case to the highest court in the land.
The nine Supreme Court justices, six appointed by Republican presidents and three by Democratic presidents, must then decide whether to venture into the political arena or, on the contrary, wisely abstain from it.
Donald Trump is also facing election interference charges in Georgia state courts and is also facing federal court charges for his alleged negligent handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.