WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 US prosecutors have asked a federal appeals court to Washington rejected former President Donald Trump's claims to legal immunity in a criminal case alleging he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Speaking at the hearing, Assistant Special Counsel James Pierce challenged the existence of the principle of absolute immunity of the heads of the executive branch in American constitutional law and warned of far-reaching negative consequences of introducing it.
«The President has a unique constitutional role, but he is not above the law. The principles of separation of powers, the text of the Constitution, history, precedents, immunity doctrines all lead to the conclusion that a former president is not immune from prosecution. At the very least, this is a case where the defendant accused of conspiring to change the results of a presidential election is not the time to recognize some new form of criminal immunity,” he said.
«Is there even a quantum of immunity for the former president? We believe the answer to this question is no,» the prosecution representative added, calling on the appeals court to accept the point of view of the district court where the federal criminal case is being heard against Trump.
Pierce cited, in particular, the landmark case Nixon v. Fitzgerald, in which the Supreme Court, according to some legal experts, limited absolute presidential immunity to civil damages. The prosecution also operates on the concept of the “outer perimeter” of the president’s duties and insists that Trump’s actions at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 do not fit into it.
Trump's defense argues that criminal prosecution of a former president for actions committed while in office is only possible if impeached by the House of Representatives and confirmed by the Senate.
“If a former president engages in political assassinations, sells pardons and the like, and has not been impeached, then it turns out that such a person cannot be held accountable? And that’s scary,” Pierce responded to this.
The court in Washington, which is comprehensively examining Trump's attempts to change the lost election in his favor, including the storming of the Capitol by his supporters, is stalled due to the need to clarify in the highest authorities the issue of the applicability and limits of presidential immunity.