Former President Trump’s lawyers asked a federal appeals court to toss his 2020 election subversion case in Washington, D.C., just one day after the Supreme Court declined special counsel Jack Smith’s request to take up Trump’s argument that his actions are protected from criminal prosecution under presidential immunity.
In a filing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday night, Trump’s attorneys reiterated their push for the appeals court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that rejected the former president’s immunity claim.
Trump introduced the argument in October, saying his actions leading up to and surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack are protected by presidential immunity.
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled earlier this month that “the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
The former president is facing four felony counts alleging he was involved in a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and stood at the center of a campaign to block the certification of votes on Jan. 6.
In the latest filing, Trump’s lawyers once again argued Trump’s conduct constitutes official acts to “advocate for and defend the intensity of the federal election, in accord with his view it was tainted by fraud and irregularity.”
Arguing the indictment is “unlawful and unconstitutional,” Trump’s lawyers said he must first be impeached and convicted by the Senate before he can be criminally prosecuted for his official acts as president.
“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. That did not happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
The oral argument for the appeals case is slated for Jan. 9, according to court filings. The trial is scheduled for March.