Former Republican officials urge court to reject Trump's 'presidential immunity'

A large group of Republican legal officials have filed an amicus brief with the D.C. Circuit, urging the judges to reject former President Donald Trump's claim of absolute presidential immunity shielding him from prosecution in United States v. Trump, the 2020 presidential election interference case.

The signatories to the brief include prominent officials like former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer, former Justice Department official and Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, former Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, former appellate judge Michael Luttig, and former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman.

"The vast immunity proposed by Appellant would encourage future Presidents who lose re-election to engage in criminal conduct, including deploying the military, in their efforts to prevent their lawfully-elected successors from commencing their exercise of the executive power," they wrote. "Such immunity would turn Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982), on its head by encouraging the greatest possible threat of 'intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch,' id. at 754 — a losing President’s efforts to usurp the authority and functions of a lawful successor President."

Furthermore, they argue, Trump's claim that he could be indicted for court litigation he filed to lawfully challenge the results of the election is spurious, as nothing in special counsel Jack Smith's case suggests this.

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District Judge Tanya Chutkan already ruled against the former president on his immunity claims, finding that his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the election are not part of a president's official duties.

Trump responded by filing an appeal, which some experts believe is a ploy to drag out the process until the trial must be delayed past the 2024 election altogether. Smith has moved to circumvent Trump's delay tactics and ask the Supreme Court to consider the matter in this term, resolving the question as soon as possible to prevent interference with the trial schedule.