Judges Skeptical That Trump Is Immune From Jan. 6 Prosecution

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : "It's paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal laws," she said.
58% : Trump has said he plans to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court as well.
48% : If judges do so after ruling against Trump, the Supreme Court could, if it wishes, take up his legal challenge while letting the trial go forward.
45% : Trump was not required to attend the hearing but chose to be there.
43% : Sauer asked at the hearing for any ruling against Trump to be put on hold for appeals to the full D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
40% : Trump is seeking to delay his trial, set for March, until after the presidential election in which he is the leading Republican candidate.
39% : "A ruling by the D.C. Circuit will impact only one of the four prosecutions Trump faces.
37% : But Sauer later suggested that anything a president does while in office is likely to be an official duty, saying the fact that the indictment against Trump "focuses solely on acts before he left office" is "a telling indication that were dealing with official acts.
37% : But Trump is making similar arguments in state court in Georgia, where he is charged in a conspiracy that covers much of the same conduct.
36% : Trump argues that he cannot be tried for trying to overturn the 2020 election results because he was acquitted by the Senate of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
32% : "Would such a president be subject to criminal prosecution if he's not impeached?"D. John Sauer, representing Trump, insisted that for any crime connected to a president's "official duties," the "political process" of impeachment and conviction by the Senate "would have to occur" before prosecution."
32% : "Trump is arguing that the judges should use the same reasoning that led the Supreme Court to give Nixon immunity from civil lawsuits for official acts in 1982.
31% : Trump has made clear that if reelected, he plans to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies.
30% : But Pan posited that he had made a fatal concession here as well - by acknowledging that a former president could be charged with a crime after impeachment, Trump was forfeiting all his arguments about the danger of such prosecutions.
28% : "A different panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled last month that in the context of a lawsuit brought by police officers and lawmakers injured on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump does not have absolute immunity because campaigning to stay in office is not an official act.
28% : The judges also pressed both sides on a brief from the nonprofit American Oversight arguing that Trump does not have the right to appeal before trial because he is making a novel claim.
26% : Both Henderson and Pan noted that Trump was now making the exact opposite argument as the one he made at his impeachment trial, when his lawyers told senators that the criminal justice system was the appropriate venue for accountability.
20% : The hearing - which invoked references dating back to George Washington's tenure - showed how the historic prosecution of Trump has raised difficult questions largely avoided for more than two centuries about the limits of presidential power and the consequences of presidential crimes.
20% : Trump also claimed that he cannot be prosecuted by Smith because he was already tried and acquitted by Congress in his 2021 impeachment.
20% : "Both the Justice Department and Trump disagreed; Pearce called it "a small point of common ground" that a former president had a right not to be tried until courts had determined whether or not he is immune from prosecution.

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