In a 67-page brief filed ahead of oral arguments scheduled for April 25, attorney John Sauer insisted that the 77-year-old Trump enjoyed sweeping immunity from prosecution for official acts during his presidency.
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team urged the Supreme Court Tuesday to dismiss the federal indictment charging him with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results and remain in power despite his loss to Joe Biden.
In a 67-page brief filed ahead of oral arguments scheduled for April 25, attorney John Sauer insisted that the 77-year-old Trump enjoyed sweeping immunity from prosecution for official acts during his presidency.
“A denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents,” Sauer wrote.
Prosecutors, led by special counsel Jack Smith, have insisted that Trump’s actions related to the 2020 election — which culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by his supporters — do not constitute official acts by a president, but rather were actions taken in his “capacity as a candidate” to overturn the election for his own benefit.
Two lower courts have rejected Trump’s immunity argument, but the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case in the hope of settling the larger constitutional question — postponing a trial which was due to begin March 4 in Washington.
