Trump denied presidential immunity in election interference case, court rules

Geoff Bennett:

A federal appeals court in Washington has rejected Donald Trump's claim of presidential immunity for actions he took in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Amna Nawaz:

The unanimous three-judge panel wrote — quote — "Former President Trump has become citizen Trump."

This clears the way for his federal trial on conspiracy and obstruction charges to move forward, but Mr. Trump is expected to appeal the ruling, which could further delay the case.

William Brangham has been keeping track of all the Trump legal developments and joins me now.

William, it's good to see you.

William Brangham:

Hi.

Amna Nawaz:

So this was a long-awaited ruling. What do we need to understand about how the judges ruled here?

William Brangham:

This was a clear setback for the former president. This was a unanimous ruling from this three-judge panel.

And it was really the first time an appeals court in our history had ever been asked this question about presidential immunity. And the judges very forcefully pushed back on each of the former president's assertions.

They ruled, in essence, that Donald Trump has to face trial in federal court on these charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election that he lost. His argument all along, as we have reported, is that all of the actions that he took leading up to January 6 were part of his official duties, and thus he should be immune from that.

The judges flatly rejected that. And I'm going to read you a quote from their ruling today. They wrote — quote — "It would be a striking paradox if the president, who alone is vested with the constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity."

This ruling is right in line with a poll that we are about to release tomorrow, NPR, "NewsHour," and Marist poll that's coming out tomorrow. It showed that 65 percent of Americans polled said that Donald Trump should not have immunity from prosecution. Strong majorities of Democrats and independents believe that way. Interestingly, the partisan flip on that is nearly the reverse.

Republicans, 68 percent of them think Donald Trump should be immune.

Amna Nawaz:

So what happens next now? We have reported previously Mr. Trump will likely appeal this ruling. What happens there? What does the timeline look like?

William Brangham:

The judges have said that Trump has until Monday to appeal to the Supreme Court for them to take it up. Everyone believes that he's going to do that.

The question is, will the Supreme Court take up that case? If they decline, this immunity ruling stands and the case goes back to Judge Tanya Chutkan, who could then restart it. It has been frozen waiting for this ruling all along.

Special counsel Jack Smith has said that case could take approximately two months to prosecute. Let's look at the calendar here, because this is where things start to get complicated. If the Supreme Court declines — I mean, again, March 4, that's when this was supposed to start. That has been delayed.

If the court declines to do that, the trial could start up maybe this springtime. But if they decide to take that up, then things get really crowded. Remember, later this summer, in July, six months from now, presidential campaign is well under way. In July, the Republican National Convention is happening in Milwaukee.

Four months after that is November 5, Election Day. If that trial date gets slid down, then Donald Trump is in the middle of the presidential campaign, by law required to be in court facing these federal charges. There would be enormous pressure on the judge to try to punt or to push that off or to accommodate his campaign.

Very little indication she would do that. So, one of the arguments that legal analysts have been making is that it seems that Donald Trump has wanted to delay this all along, to push these off as far as he can, so that a ruling and or verdict could happen after the election and wouldn't impact voters, or, in Trump's ideal world, push them into the next year, so that, if he were reelected, he could then determine his attorney general could dismantle the federal cases against him.

Amna Nawaz:

William Brangham with the latest ruling in Mr. Trump's ongoing legal cases.

William, thank you.

William Brangham:

Thanks, Amna.

Amna Nawaz:

And you can see more of our poll online, including what Americans think about President Trump's immunity claim. That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.