Former President Donald Trump on Thursday asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to toss the January 6-related charges against him, invoking a presidential immunity defense that Richard Nixon infamously summarized in 1977 as, “When the president does it… that means that it is not illegal.”
In a 50-page filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Trump’s legal team argued that where “the president’s actions are within the ambit of his office, he is absolutely immune from prosecution.”
The filing points to Supreme Court precedent, including Nixon v. Fitzgerald, a case in which a civilian U.S. Air Force employee sued Nixon for damages after he was terminated. The high court ruled 5-4 that the president is immune “from damages liability for acts within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility”—a line that Trump’s legal team quotes in its new filing.
Trump faces four criminal counts in the January 6 case, which was brought by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith. The charges include conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy against rights.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all four counts, which are among the more than 90 charges he is facing across four criminal cases.
In an amicus brief filed earlier this year in a separate January 6-related case against Trump, the U.S. Justice Department argued that while Nixon v. Fitzgerald “establishes a rule of absolute immunity for the president’s official acts,” it isn’t “a rule of absolute immunity for the president regardless of the nature of his acts.”
“In the United States’ view,” DOJ added, “such incitement of imminent private violence would not be within the outer perimeter of the office of the president of the United States.”
Traitor Tot was never legitimately the president, since the election was interfered with, and the electoral college failed in it’s job to not seat an unqualified candidate!
Even if he had been a legitimate president, that does not protect him from the consequences of having not followed the constitution or breaking the law! Traitor Tot is a TRAITOR and guilty of SEDITION! He has also committed many other crimes (only a few of which he has been indicted for).
The E.C. was not tasked with protecting the office of the presidency from unqualified candidates. It was created to keep the common people from having too much sway in elections. It was created to make sure common populists did not usurp the office, and the nation, from the wealthy interests. It is performing as intended by the people who created it which is why it must be disposed of promptly and completely. Oh, sure, they said it was to give more say to states with smaller populations but that wasn’t it’s purpose as we see full well in the 21st century. In MT, we had 3 E.C. votes (now it’s 4 since the 2020 census). Those 4 E.C. votes count for jack sh*t in any presidential election. WY has 3 f.f.s. which counts even less.
The fact is the U.S. exists, and has since its inception, to allow the wealthy to become wealthier. We used to have laws that at least made a stab at protecting the majority of citizens from the wealthy few: progressive tax laws and road blocks to inter-generational wealth distribution. Those things no longer exist and we now have wealthy masters and we are basically serfs. It WILL get worse if we do not pitch-fork those pieces of shit out of government and government influencing. We have for too long had congress in the pockets of wealthy interests but now it is the highest court in the land that is in their pockets. 5-6 of our supreme court justices have been bought and paid for. Think on that for a bit.
No, the E.C. has never existed to keep incompetents out of the W.H. If that is what you want, and it IS what we need, then the constitution must be amended because the requirements for becoming president in this country is an incredibly low bar to hop over.
Yes! If I had 20 thumbs, they’d all be up. The electoral college is the scourge of legitimate democracy which should be 1 citizen, 1 vote.