Donald Trump Argues To High Court That He Is Immune From Prosecution In Jan. 6 Case

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump on Tuesday made his case to the U.S. Supreme Court that his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt was part of his official duties as president and is therefore immune from prosecution.

The claim has previously been rejected by both a trial court and a federal appellate court. A rejection by the Supreme Court — which many legal observers say is likely — could force him to undergo trial on conspiracy and fraud charges in the Jan. 6 case this autumn, just as many voters are starting to pay attention to a coming election in which Trump hopes to regain the White House.

In that scenario, a parade of onetime Trump aides, possibly including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, would appear on the witness stand almost daily, offering firsthand accounts to the jury and the public about Trump’s actions in the weeks leading up to and on that day, when a mob of his followers attacked the U.S. Capitol to block congressional certification of his 2020 election loss.

Should the high court side with Trump, it would effectively end special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution against the former president over his coup attempt.

According to Smith, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan and the three judges who heard the case on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, it would also effectively allow presidents to commit all manner of crimes in office by claiming that they were carrying out official duties.

“Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass,” Chutkan wrote in her Dec. 1, 2023, ruling.

“It would be a striking paradox if the president, who alone is vested with the