Donald Trump argued Thursday for “total immunity” for the president of the United States, as a Washington appeals court considers his request for immunity from criminal charges accusing him of trying to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election.
“A president of the United States should have total immunity, without which he or she could not properly exercise his functions”, and this “even for facts which ‘cross a red line’”, declared in a message while capital letters the former Republican president on his Truth Social platform.
Prosecuted in four criminal cases, the big favorite in the Republican primaries for the November presidential election is seeking through his multiple appeals to postpone his trials as late as possible, and in any case after the vote.
In December, the judge presiding over the trial proceedings surrounding accusations of attempts to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election rejected his request for immunity, considering that no text protected a former president against criminal prosecution.
Donald Trump appealed, and his lawyer John Sauer argued before the judges in early January that “allowing a president to be prosecuted for his official actions would open a Pandora’s box from which this country may never recover.”
To one of the judges, Florence Pan, who asked him whether sending special forces to assassinate a political opponent or selling presidential pardons fell under these official acts, John Sauer replied in the affirmative.
The three judges of the Washington Court of Appeals expressed skepticism about this request for immunity.
In the event of a decision against him, Donald Trump could appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
“God bless the Supreme Court,” said the ex-president in his Thursday publication on Truth Social, saying he hoped for “an easy decision” on the question of presidential immunity.
The billionaire also compared the presidential office to that of a police officer.
“You can’t stop the police from doing their job of strong and effective crime prevention because you want to avoid sometimes having a ‘rogue cop’ or a ‘black sheep.’ Sometimes you have to be able to be satisfied with “the excellent but slightly imperfect”.”
