A federal appeals court in Washington has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from criminal prosecution for actions taken while president, ruling that such an interpretation would place former occupants of the Oval Office above the law.
The three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit unanimously ruled that the former president could be prosecuted for allegedly plotting to overturn the 2020 election results. The judges wrote that they could not accept that a president has “unbounded authority to commit crimes”.
Trump has until 12 February to ask the US Supreme Court to stay the decision. If he appeals, the case will not return to the district court until the Supreme Court rules. The special counsel, Jack Smith, had previously tried to bypass the appeals process, but the Supreme Court declined to intervene.
Trump’s legal strategy has been to delay proceedings in the hope that if he wins the 2024 presidential election, a loyalist attorney general could drop the charges. The defence of presidential immunity was widely seen as a tactic to push back the trial date.
During oral arguments in January, the panel questioned Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, about the implications of his client’s position, including whether it would allow a president to order political assassinations without criminal consequence.
