Trump expected in court for immunity appeal in election interference case

A federal appeals court is considering whether Donald Trump can be criminally prosecuted on federal charges over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election because it involved actions related to his office that he undertook while still president.

The decision that the appeals court in Washington reaches after the Tuesday morning hearing – which the former president said on his Truth Social platform he will attend – and how long it takes to issue a ruling, could carry profound consequences for the scheduled March trial.

Trump appealed his federal election interference case last month after the trial judge rejected his effort to have the charges thrown out on grounds that he was afforded absolute immunity from prosecution.

The argument from Trump’s lawyers advanced a sweeping interpretation of executive authority that contended all of his actions to reverse his election defeat in 2020 fell under the “outer perimeter” of his duties as president and were therefore protected.

Trump’s motion was swiftly rejected by the US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who wrote in an opinion accompanying the ruling that neither the US constitution nor legal precedent supported such an extraordinary extension of post-presidential power.

“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. “Former presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability.”

Trump’s lawyers had always expected to lose their initial attempt to toss the charges, which is scheduled for trial in federal district court in Washington on 5 March, and to use the appeals process as their final strategy