Former President Donald Trump has petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to have Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment claiming he conspired to overturn the 2020 election tossed out on Constitutional grounds.
Attorney John D. Sauer argued in a 55-page briefing to the court that, as president, Trump’s actions were protected under our governmental system.
“Under our system of separated powers, the judicial branch cannot sit in judgment over a president’s official acts,” Sauer wrote, according to the Daily Mail. “That doctrine is not controversial.”
Trump, the filing argued, was working in his official capacity to “ensure election integrity.”
“The unbroken tradition of not exercising the supposed formidable power of criminally prosecuting a president for official acts — despite ample motive and opportunity to do so, over centuries — implies that the power does not exist,” Sauer stated.
It’s an argument the Trump team has repeatedly made. Only by impeaching him and convicting him in the Senate can the former president be criminally prosecuted for “official acts.”
“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,” according to the filing.
“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,” it continued. “That did not happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity.”
Constitution be damned, District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the trial judge in the case, rejected the immunity argument earlier this month, claiming that the presidency “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
Trump, she said, could still be “subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.”
As BizPac Review reported, on Friday, the Supreme Court rejected Smith’s request to have them hear the case before the DC Court issued a ruling.
Trump celebrated the high court’s decision on Truth Social, calling Smith’s move a “desperate attempt to short circuit our Great Constitution.”
“Crooked Joe Biden and his henchmen waited three years to bring this sham case, and now they have tried and failed to rush this Witch Hunt through the courts,” Trump wrote. “Of course I am entitled to Presidential Immunity. I was President, it was my right and duty to investigate, and speak on, the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election.”
“The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected Deranged Jack Smith’s desperate attempt to short circuit our Great Constitution. Crooked Joe Biden and his henchmen waited 3 years to bring this sham case, and now they have tried and failed to rush this Witch Hunt through the courts…” pic.twitter.com/jMQzoKjzuR
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) December 22, 2023
“The decision was a victory for the Republican presidential frontrunner and increases the chances it will delay his federal election interference trial which is slated to start on March 4,” the Daily Mail reports.
Expediting its consideration of Trump’s appeal, the appeals court will hear oral arguments on January 9 — less than one week before the Iowa Caucuses.
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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