The former president loses a landmark legal bid to shield him from charges of election fraud.

Donald Trump does not have presidential immunity and can be prosecuted on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, a US court has ruled.

Mr Trump had claimed in the landmark legal case that he was immune from criminal charges for acts he said fell within his duties as president.

°°°¶

“We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a president has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralise the most fundamental check on executive power - the recognition and implementation of election results,” the three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit wrote in its opinion.

It added: “For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defences of any other criminal defendant.”

°°¶

“If immunity is not granted to a president, every future president who leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party,” Mr Cheung said. “Without complete immunity, a president of the United States would not be able to properly function.”

  • airrowMEnglish
    3·
    5 months ago

    “presidential immunity” has had me thinking of religion and the pope having this principle “the First See is judged by no one”… it sounded similar. The idea was the pope is the superior and has no legal equal, therefore can’t be judged. This has made “sedevacantist” arguments seem difficult, as they seem to “judge the pope”, which violates this principle: like any time “pope” Francis says something that sounds blatantly anti-Christian. So instead people have argued against the validity of the election of the pope, rather than “judge the pope”. It’s a parallel conflict going on, Trump was contesting the validity of elections just like (a minority of) those identifying as Catholic have questioned the validity of modern papal elections.

    edit: this also reminds me that Aquinas I think and a few other theologians (?) controversially argued for “tyrannicide” in certain instances where a king might turn tyrannical, as a kind of check on otherwise less limited monarchical power: https://infogalactic.com/info/Tyrannicide