Trump Makes His Final Case To Supreme Court To Avoid Prosecution For His Coup Attempt

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump makes his final case Thursday for why he should not be criminally prosecuted for his coup attempt, as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on his claims of “absolute immunity” for actions he took while president.

Trump’s lawyers — Trump personally will be in New York City, attending his criminal trial on an unrelated felony case — will try to justify their assertions that because Trump’s actions that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol were done while he was president, they are immune from prosecution.

Trump himself has in speeches and social media posts for months been demanding immunity. “EVEN EVENTS THAT ‘CROSS THE LINE’ MUST FALL UNDER TOTAL IMMUNITY, OR IT WILL BE YEARS OF TRAUMA TRYING TO DETERMINE GOOD FROM BAD,” he wrote in a Monday post. “ALL PRESIDENTS MUST HAVE COMPLETE & TOTAL PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY, OR THE AUTHORITY & DECISIVENESS OF A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WILL BE STRIPPED & GONE FOREVER. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE AN EASY DECISION. GOD BLESS THE SUPREME COURT!”

Department of Justice lawyers have successfully defeated Trump’s arguments twice already, before trial court judge Tanya Chutkan as well as a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Supreme Court justices will have to explore uncharted legal territory in their deliberations. No former president has previously claimed immunity from prosecution in the nation’s history. The only president who even faced such a possibility was Richard Nixon for his abuse of federal agencies in his cover-up of the Watergate break-in, but he was pardoned days after resigning from office by successor Gerald Ford.

How and — just as important — when the court rules could determine