In a new interview on MSNBC, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann predicted that Donald Trump would fail colossally on the substance of his arguments in a dispute currently unfolding before the federal court of appeals covering Washington, D.C.
Trump is trying to argue that he has nearly complete legal immunity — meaning, in practice here, protections from prosecution — covering everything he did within the responsibilities of the presidency. And Trump is trying to use these arguments to put a stop to the criminal case from Special Counsel Jack Smith at the Justice Department covering the schemes undertaken by Trump after the 2020 presidential race to stay in power, which Smith alleges constituted a series of criminal conspiracies.
“I think there’s no question that Donald Trump is going to lose on his argument that he is somehow absolved of all criminal, possible criminal liability because he was a former president. I think that is a dead loser. The main issue is that currently there is a full stay of the trial date. […] The thing I’m keeping my eye on is […] Does the D.C. Circuit do anything to tighten up any steps that Donald Trump can take after it rules to delay things further, or whether they’re going to allow the trial court to move forward quickly,” Weissmann said.
Prosecutors have still made some new filings at the District Court level despite the hold on the bulk of proceedings, spurring predictable ire from the Trump team. Meanwhile, Weissmann predicted a quick turnaround for the actual decision from the appeals panel in D.C. on Trump’s immunity claims, but the dispute seems set to head to the U.S. Supreme Court at some point afterwards. Prosecutors are insisting that even if there were to be some level of legal immunity (in a criminal context) established for former presidents, what Trump was doing in targeting the 2020 election’s results was clearly outside the reasonable extent of his presidential duties.
