While he consolidated his status as a right-wing favorite for the November presidential election by largely winning the Iowa caucus, Donald Trump argued Thursday in favor of “total immunity” for the President of the United States, as an appeals court in Washington considers his request for immunity from criminal charges accusing him of trying to illegally overturn 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 an all capitals message l ex-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.
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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."
Washington Court of Appeals Skeptical
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, which refused in December to rule urgently on his immunity.
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“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 police officer
or a
black sheep
.
Sometimes you have to be able to be satisfied with
the excellent but slightly imperfect
.
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