In a new filing made with federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, Special Counsel Jack Smith at the federal Justice Department and his team have flatly rejected a series of arguments from defendant Donald Trump’s team contending that he should be considered comprehensively immune from criminal prosecution over key issues by virtue of his ex-role as president.
The case concerns Trump’s attempts to retain presidential power after the 2020 elections despite losing to Joe Biden, who’s now president. Immunity on the basis of an ostensible connection to official responsibilities is the same sort of argument that likely awaited in federal court if several defendants in Trump’s parallel Georgia case had been successful in recent attempts to move the handling of their charges to federal court.
“The implications of the defendant’s unbounded immunity theory are startling,” Smith’s team said, as highlighted Thursday by POLITICO. “It would grant absolute immunity from criminal prosecution to a president who accepts a bribe in exchange for a lucrative government contract for a family member; a president who instructs his FBI Director to plant incriminating evidence on a political enemy; a president who orders the National Guard to murder his most prominent critics; or a president who sells nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary.” Prosecutors also cited the extensive precedent in the U.S. of prosecutions of various elected figures.
Trump’s team also evidently tried to argue the Senate’s decision to acquit in an impeachment trial that followed the Capitol riot should be held to block further proceedings in this criminal case — though they previously contended when those impeachment proceedings were actually moving forward that the threat against Trump of criminal charges should’ve blocked that matter! Pairing the arguments creates an evident fantasy from the Trump team of the two challenges just cancelling each other out — not a realistic approach. Besides, impeachment is neither criminal nor civil in nature. It’s a legally outlined political process — a system separate from the ordinary justice system.
Trump, meanwhile, continues facing court cases that also challenge his eligibility for office on the basis of claimed ties to January 6. Smith’s team has previously argued in court filings that their case against Trump does specifically link him to that day’s events.
