A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Tuesday over whether Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for actions he took after the 2020 election, one of the key questions that could determine the former president’s legal and political fate in 2024.
Trump is attend the oral arguments in the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where a three-judge panel will decide whether the federal charges brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith should be dismissed based on Trump’s claims of immunity.
Trump’s presence at the 9:30 a.m. ET hearing Tuesday – less than week before the Iowa caucuses – underscores how intertwined Trump’s legal and political worlds have become, as the former president has made the four criminal indictments against him a key part of his pitch to his supporters in the 2024 campaign.
The immunity question is ultimately expected to end up before the Supreme Court, one of several consequential questions the high court will take up related to Trump this year. On Friday, the US Supreme Court said it would review next month the Colorado Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision to remove Trump from its state ballot.
Trump faces four counts from Smith’s election subversion charges, including conspiring to defraud the United States and to obstruct an official proceeding. The former president has pleaded not guilty.
Here’s what to know for Tuesday’s arguments:
A key question for Trump’s legal peril: District Judge Tanya Chutkan has declined to dismiss the election subversion charges against Trump, ruling that he does not have absolute immunity for what he said and did after the 2020 election.
“Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, 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,” Chutkan wrote. “Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability.”
Trump appealed that decision to the appeals court. Trump’s attorneys have argued that his actions trying to overturn the 2020 election fell within his duties as president because Trump was working to “ensure election integrity” as part of his official capacity as president, and therefore he is immune from criminal prosecution.
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