Trump Appeals Immunity Decision by Lower Court After Smith Defeated by Supreme Court

Donald Trump is hoping the decision by the Supreme Court to reject Jack Smith’s request to take the immunity decision will pay off for him in the lower courts.

Judge Chutkan rejected the idea that Trump was immune from his actions on January 6, 2021, deciding that his actions that day were not official presidential duties.

With the Supreme Court rejecting Smith’s motion to decide on this now, the case will go through the appeal process, which Trump’s legal team started on Saturday.

Slow It Down

Trump’s legal team wants as many shots as possible to decide if Trump’s actions were considered part of his presidential duties.

To that point, after Smith filed a motion with the Supreme Court to decide on the matter now and that motion was declined, Trump’s team filed its appeal on the matter with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Trump’s team argued, “Under our system of separated powers, the Judicial Branch cannot sit in judgment over a President’s official acts.

“The indictment against President Trump is unlawful and unconstitutional. It must be dismissed.”

The filing continued, “Before any single prosecutor can ask a court to sit in judgment of the President’s conduct, Congress must have approved of it by impeaching and convicting the President. That did not happen here, and so President Trump has absolute immunity.”

Trump has always maintained that his actions that day were part of his presidential duties, again explaining, “I was doing my duty as President to expose and further investigate a Rigged and Stolen Election. It was my obligation to do so, and the proof found is voluminous and irrefutable.”

Trump continues to claim that he has plenty of proof the election was stolen, but he has lost challenges to the election at every level and on multiple occasions. While there has been evidence of some fraud during the election, it was never proven in court that it was to a level that would have changed the outcome.

Oral arguments have already been scheduled for January 9, 2024, which means that the starting date for the trial, March 4, will more than likely have to be pushed back.

If this case gets delayed, it would likely face a fall date, if not having to be pushed to 2025, as Trump’s legal calendar is stacked up with the other federal indictments and civil suits that have been brought against him.