Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump arrive to vote in the Florida primary election in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 19, 2024. already twice rejected the immunity claims. The high court’s decision to consider the matter has left the criminal case on hold pending the outcome of the appeal, making it unclear whether special counsel Jack Smith will be able to put the ex-president on trial before November’s election.
In a brief filed Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers repeated many of the same arguments that judges have already turned aside, asserting that a president “cannot function, and the Presidency itself cannot retain its vital independence, if the President faces criminal prosecution for official acts once he leaves office.”
“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,” the lawyers wrote. “The threat of future prosecution and imprisonment would become a political cudgel to influence the most sensitive and controversial Presidential decisions, taking away the strength, authority, and decisiveness of the Presidency.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, and a three-judge federal appeals panel in Washington have both agreed with Smith, but the case — once scheduled for trial on March 4 — has been effectively frozen for months as the appeal continues to wind through the courts. Trump’s lawyers also told the justices that in the event they don’t accept his immunity arguments, they should send the case back to Chutkan for additional “fact-finding.” Such a move would result in even lengthier delays before a trial could be scheduled.that Trump is facing as he seeks to reclaim the White House. He and his lawyers have sought to delay the cases from proceeding to trial, a strategy that to date has yielded some success for the ex-president.
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