US: Trump attends court in immunity appeal, threatens Biden
Former US President Donald Trump appeared in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday as his lawyers sought to have a pending case against him for plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — which he lost to Joe Biden — dismissed.
Arguing that their client enjoyed blanket immunity, Trump's lawyers threatened that should the court not rule in his favor, other presidents could, "launch cycles of recrimination and politically motivated prosecution."
Though not obliged to appear, Trump, who may not testify in the case, used the date to pronounce that he was the victim of just such attacks.
He is accused of engaging in a multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election by pressuring state officials to fabricate votes; overturn state election results; of scheming to appoint fake electors; and disrupting the counting of official election results — both in conspiracy with sitting US representatives and senators, as well as by instrumentalizing supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The appeal in the current case comes after US District Judge Tanya Chutkin rejected Trump's immunity claim, saying the presidency is not, "a get out of jail free pass" conferred for life.
What are the arguments for and against immunity?
Trump and his team have argued that he was acting in an official capacity as he sought to overturn the results of the election, which he lost by more than 7 million votes.
"Of course I was entitled, as president of the United States and commander-in-chief, to immunity. I was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, which is my obligation to do, and otherwise running our country," Trump wrote in a social media post.
In more than 60 cases brought by Trump and his lawyers in the aftermath of the 2020 election, not one found evidence of fraud that would have influenced the outcome of the vote.
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