Donald J. Trump: He is Out to Prove that No One is Above the Law EXCEPT Himself

Yes, that is true for every American

(You'll be held accountable for your crimes)

Judge Chutkan makes her ruling: Trump appeals

(Will it work - probably (hopefully) not)

Another major step by Trump to delay, stall, or totally toss out one of the most-serious four charges: The January 6 insurrection & the trial date reported on from THE AP with this headline:

“Trump appeals ruling rejecting immunity claim as window narrows to derail federal election case”

The highlights from the article once again show Trump trying get out of the January 6 trial date. The highlights from this AP article follow.

The story (formatted to fit the blog):

Washington (The AP) —Trump is appealing a ruling that found he is not immune from criminal prosecution as he runs out of time to delay or even derail an upcoming trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Lawyers for Trump, the 2024 primary frontrunner, filed a notice of appeal indicating that they will challenge U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's decision rejecting Trump's bid to derail the case headed to trial in Washington, DC in March.

The one-page filing was accompanied by a request from the Trump team to put the case on pause so the appeals court can take up the matter.

Trump's lawyers wrote: “The filing of President Trump’s notice of appeal has deprived this Court of jurisdiction over this case in its entirety pending resolution of the appeal. Therefore, a stay of all further proceedings is mandatory and automatic.”

The appeal had been expected given that Trump's lawyers had earlier signaled their plans to pursue all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary, what they say is a legally untested question of a former president's immunity from criminal prosecution. 

That argument that Trump was immune from prosecution for actions taken within his role as president had been seen as perhaps the most weighty and legally consequential objections to the case made by the Trump lawyers ahead of trial.

But now that the argument has already been rejected by the trial judge, Trump's best hope at delaying the trial appears to be convincing the D.C. Circuit, or the U.S. Supreme Court itself, to pause the case while the higher courts consider his prosecutorial immunity claim.

However, the rejection last week by a three-judge panel of the appeals court of Trump’s sweeping claims of immunity in civil cases accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, suggest he likely faces an uphill battle before that court.

While it’s possible the U.S. Supreme Court may feel compelled to step in to address an unprecedented legal question, there’s also no guarantee the justices will take the case up at this stage.

Jessica Roth, a Cardozo School of Law professor who has been following the case said: “Though it typically takes months for appeals to wind their way through higher courts, the D.C. Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court could quickly resolve the question of immunity if the judges want to. It’s a very clean, narrow legal issue, and the issue has been fully briefed by the parties and very well laid out in the opinion so it’s not like considerable time is needed. It’s a purely legal question that the courts could expedite and decide quickly.”

Trump lawyers have asserted that he cannot face criminal charges because the actions spelled out in the indictment fell within his duties as president.

But Judge Chutkan said that nothing in the Constitution nor American history justifies cloaking former presidents with immunity from prosecution for actions they took while in office.

Judge Chutkan wrote in part in her ruling: “Defendant's four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.”

While the Supreme Court has held that presidents are immune from civil liability for actions within the scope of their official duties, courts have never before had to grapple with the question of whether that immunity extends to criminal prosecution.

Cheryl Bader, a former federal prosecutor and now head of Fordham University Law School’s Criminal Defense Clinic, said she believes the immunity argument will be a losing battle for Trump, even before the conservative-majority Supreme Court and then she concluded: “I think based on the law and there being no constitutional provision giving former presidents immunity and based on the policy that we don’t want to have former presidents being able to commit crimes ... I don’t see how this ruling gets reversed. This decision really puts Trump in his place, it basically said he’s not a monarch and once he leaves office he gets no special treatment in the halls of justice.”

The case charges Trump with conspiring to subvert the will of voters in a desperate bid to cling to power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

The case outlined above is one of four criminal cases Trump faces that's scheduled for trial next year, although it's possible the appeal of this immunity case could delay that trial, which is his aim). The other three cases are:

1. Trump has been charged in FL by Special Counsel Jack Smith with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House.

2. Trump is also charged in GA by DA Fani Willis with conspiring to overturn his election loss to Biden.

3. Trump faces charges in NYS related to the hush money payments he made during the 2016 campaign.

He denied any wrongdoing in all four cases.

My 2 Cents: My earlier and related post is here – FYI.

The AP article above and facts therein are very clear and concise,

Now the final question will for the remaining courts up the line and including the USSC to say yes or no that: “No one is above the law” (except as Trump claims he is).

Hang on tight – it could get very ugly.

Thanks for stopping by.