The former president’s lawyers have urged a federal appeals court to dismiss the election subversion case against him.
Donald Trump’s lawyers have urged a federal appeals court to dismiss the election subversion case against him, arguing that he has “absolute immunity” and cannot be charged for actions that fell within his official duties as president.
Trump faces charges accusing him of working to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to President Joe Biden ahead of the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021. He has denied any wrongdoing.
In a 55-page brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Saturday, Trump attorney John Sauer argued that under the Constitution, judges cannot hold the president accountable for any acts undertaken while in office.
Sauer also argued that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for any “official acts” unless they are first impeached and then convicted by the Senate.
The conduct alleged in the indictment constitute “officials acts,” Sauer wrote, because they all reflect Trump’s “efforts and duties, squarely as chief executive of the United States, to advocate for and defend the integrity of the federal election, in accord with his view that it was tainted by fraud and irregularity.”
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,” Sauer wrote.
He added that 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.
