WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Donald Trump urged the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday to dismiss an indictment charging the former president with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, renewing their arguments that he is immune from prosecution for official acts taken in the White House.
Lower courts have already twice rejected the immunity claims, but Trump’s lawyers will get a fresh chance to press their case before the Supreme Court when the justices hear arguments on April 25. The high court’s decision to consider the matter has left the criminal case on hold pending the outcome of the appeal, making it unclear whether special counsel Jack Smith will be able to put the ex-president on trial before November’s election.
In a brief filed Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers repeated many of the same arguments that judges have already turned aside, asserting that a 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.”
“A denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents,” the lawyers wrote.
