Former President Donald Trump was present in a Washington, D.C., courtroom on Tuesday for the argument portion of his presidential immunity case.
The case revolves around four indictments that allege the former president attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
However, Trump claims that presidential immunity should shield him and the indictments should be dismissed.
The former president said in a fundraising email prior to the hearing that he is prepared “to fight for my rights as Crooked Joe and his Special Counsel of ‘war crimes prosecutors’ are attempting to strip them from me,” as reported by NBC 5 DFW.
During the hearing, Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, said that the prosecution of the former president “would open a Pandora’s box from which this nation may never recover.”
“If a president has to look over his shoulder or her shoulder every time he or she has to make a controversial decision and wonder if ‘after I leave office, am I going to jail for this when my political opponents take power?’ that inevitably dampens the ability of the president,” he said, per NBC 5.
Sauer also addressed the social media posts used by the special counsel in their allegations, claiming that “all those tweets are obviously immune” since another appeals court had determined that the account “during the presidency was an official channel of government communication,” per CNN.
Prosecutor James Pearce pushed back on the arguments made by Trump’s legal team, claiming that “[t]he president has a unique constitutional role but he is not above the law.”
“Separation of powers principles, constitutional text, history, precedent and immunity doctrines all point to the conclusion that a former president enjoys no immunity from prosecution,” detailed Pearce, per NBC 5.
Pearce further explained that the charges brought against Trump are “unprecedented” and should be treated that way.
“Never before has there been allegations that a sitting president has, with private individuals and using the levers of power, tried to fundamentally subvert the democratic republic and the electoral system,” he said, per CNN.
“And frankly if that kind of fact pattern arises again, I think it would be awfully scary if there weren’t some sort of mechanism by which to reach that — criminally.”
Judges from the court seemed split about the use of complete presidential immunity during the hearing.
“I think it is paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care of the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal law,” said Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, per CNN.
However, the judges were also concerned about the ideas presented by Sauer during the hearing, explaining that the full removal of presidential immunity could “open the floodgates” and lead to “tit-for-tat” prosecutions meant to discredit political rivals, per BBC News.
Following the completion of the hearing, Trump spoke about the events and said, “[y]ou can’t have a president without immunity.”
“You have to have, as a president, you have to be able to do your job,” Trump said, per CNN.
