Judges push back against Trump's immunity claim in the election interference case

Former President Donald Trump made a rare Tuesday appearance in a courtroom in Washington, D.C., for a make-or-break moment in his federal election interference case.

In arguments that extended for more than an hour, three judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit pressed Trump's attorney on his sweeping claims of immunity from federal prosecution.

"To authorize the prosecution of a president for his official acts will open a Pandora's box from which this nation will never recover," Trump attorney Dean John Sauer told the panel.

Judge Florence Pan interrupted to ask, "In your view, can a president sell pardons or sell military secrets? Those are official acts."

"Can a president order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival" and not be charged with a crime? continued Pan, an appointee of President Biden.

Sauer said a president would need to be impeached and convicted first. Trump was impeached by the House (twice) but not convicted by the Senate.

"I think it's paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate federal law," said Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to four felony counts that accuse him of leading a conspiracy to cling to power and disenfranchise millions of voters in 2020. Prosecutors say that this culminated in violence at the U.S. Capitol three years ago that injured 140 law enforcement officers and shook the foundations of American democracy.

Arguments in the case

Trump attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche have asserted that those charges are based on official actions Trump took while he was president — and that Trump was simply raising