Donald Trump on Tuesday filed a U.S. Supreme Court brief in his bid for criminal immunity for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, arguing that a former president enjoys “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for his official acts.”
The case is due to be argued before the justices on April 25. Trump has appealed a lower court’s rejection of his request to be shielded from the criminal case being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith because he was serving as president when he took the actions at the center of the case.
The filing advances arguments similar to ones Trump’s lawyers previously have made and echoes statements he has made on the campaign trail as he seeks to regain the presidency.
“The president cannot function, and the presidency itself cannot retain its vital independence, if the president faces criminal prosecution for official acts once he leaves office,” the filing said.
It also presumes that the independent presidency is of any value to the republic, pretty consistently it has actually been a source of conflicts both over the authority it holds and over the authority it is not supposed to but does anyways because an independent executive will inherently form a parasitic relationship against any legislative body it is unaccountable to.