'Not a scintilla of evidence': Legal expert knocks Trump's 'irrelevant' immunity effort

The back-and-forth paper war between Donald Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith over the former president's immunity claims will likely end with Trump against the legal ropes, legal experts say.

Former federal prosecutor Shan Wu appeared on CNN Wednesday night to argue Trump's contention — that as a former president, he can't be tried for election subversion in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot — was ultimately anemic.

"He wants to bring in all these irrelevant, non-evidence based arguments about political persecution," Wu said. "The judge should rule you can't do that, you can't just make up things in an argument, like an alien is actually the murderer, when you haven't presented even a scintilla evidence."

For his part, Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges and accused "errand boy" Smith of pursuing a political witch hunt at the behest of Joe Biden.

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"In 234 years of American history, no president ever faced criminal prosecution for his official acts," Trump's legal team wrote in a recent filing. "Until 19 days ago, no court had ever addressed whether immunity from such prosecution exists."

While his lawyers successfully defeated Smith's attempt to take the presidential immunity question directly to the Supreme Court, which ruled earlier this month it was for a D.C. Appeals court to answer, experts believe the victories will end in early 2024.

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen predicted the D.C. Circuit Court will rule against Trump and the election interference trial will readily begin in early summer.

"No president has ever been held to be absolutely immune," Eisen noted. "That argument is likely to be tossed out."

Wu agreed, and praised Smith for Wednesday's filing, which he believes makes a timely trial more likely.

"Smith's team is very wise to be pushing forward with these types of motions," Wu said. "When a decision comes down they will be ready to roll."

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