A federal appeals court in the District of Columbia has rejected former US President Donald Trump's claim that he was immune from charges of conspiracy to try to sway the outcome of the 2020 election The former president argued that he should not be prosecuted because the charges he is accused of happened during his presidency. Yesterday's decision, agreed unanimously, implies that he will have to go to trial for this case, one of the four criminal processes in force against the tycoon, along with the imputations from New York, Georgia and Florida.
The document, of 57 pages, creates jurisprudence in the United States, as it answers a question that had never been raised before the court: can a former president face criminal charges for acts that occurred during his presidency? Trump is the first president or ex-president impeached in the country's history, which has led the judicial system to make this unprecedented decision.
The appeals court maintains that Trump is no longer president, so "for purposes of this criminal case, Trump is a citizen, with all the defenses of any other criminal defendant." Because of this, "any executive immunity that might have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution."
After pleading "not guilty" in August to the four charges that make up the federal impeachment, initiated by special prosecutor Jack Smith, Trump's defense appealed against the decision of Judge Tanya Chutkan, in charge of the case, which had denied his immunity. A month ago, the initial allegations began in the appeals court, which has reached a conclusion faster than expected, which implies a new defeat for Trump before justice.
Although the court was widely expected to reject Trump's immunity in this case, the appeal has served to buy him time. Judge Chutkan had originally set the trial for March 4, the first of the four criminal cases, and last week adjourned it indefinitely. This type of resource does not usually influence the calendar of court cases, but in this case it did alter it, given its relevance, since it has to do with the possibility of a former president going unpunished for crimes committed during his term.
However, the decision is not final, as the tycoon can still exhaust the judicial process and appeal to the Supreme Court, the highest instance. If he appeals, as he is expected to do, the court's nine judges will first have to decide whether to accept the case, and if they do, the trial will be suspended until they make a decision. This would be the ideal scenario for the tycoon, who is using all the resources at his disposal to postpone the court cases against him as much as possible
Trump's central strategy in all the processes against him is to buy time, as much as possible, to try to postpone the trials until after the November elections. If the former president were to win the election, he could put a sudden stop to this legal process, since it was initiated by the Department of Justice, just like the one in Florida, over the hundreds of classified documents that the FBI found in his private club in Mar- a- Lake
Specifically, the crimes of which he is accused, for everything that happened from the elections in November 2020 to the assault on the Capitol, on January 6, 2021, are four, and very serious: conspiracy to defrauding the United States Government, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings, obstruction of official proceedings and conspiracy to violate civil rights.
