Donald Trump could be BROKE before all the litigation due his 2020 election and business stuff is over…..
Oh?
The Decision by the Washington D.C. Appeals Court was unanimous …..
Two U.S. Capitol police officers and about a dozen Democratic lawmakers sued Trump in 2021, saying he potentially instigated violence on Jan. 6 by telling supporters the election was stolen and urging them to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” The plaintiffs sued under a roughly 150-year-old law that bars the use of force, threats or intimidation to prevent government officials from carrying out their duties and allows anyone injured by such actions to collect damages. They argued Trump violated the statute — designed to combat Ku Klux Klan violence after the Civil War — by conspiring with members of far-right groups to keep lawmakers from confirming Joe Biden’s election win.
Special Counsel Jack Smith also accused Trump of violating a law written to target the Klan, along with other federal crimes….
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The question of when and how a former president can be charged criminally, rather than sued in civil court, has never arisen before. Trump’s attorneys argued that the civil standard applied in his criminal case. “Trump’s efforts to ensure election integrity, and to advocate for the same” were “at the heart of his official responsibilities as President,” they wrote. Even if Trump maliciously pursued claims he knew were false, his lawyer’s argued, “the President’s motivations are not for the prosecution or this Court to decide.”
Smith’s office replied that if there is any criminal immunity for former presidents, it is be “narrower” than civil immunity, because otherwise it would prevent prosecution even for undisputable crimes such as bribery. They compared former presidents to judges, who enjoy protection from lawsuits but are “subject to criminal prosecutions as are other citizens.”
Trump is “not above the law,” they wrote….
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A lower-court judge, Amit P. Mehta, rejected Trump’s claim of immunity in February 2022. The president has “no role” in the “Certification of the Electoral College vote,” he said and “false claims of election fraud and theft” is “not speech in furtherance of any official duty.”….
Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻
@AWeissmann_
“When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act.”
Republicans against Trump reposted
Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️
@tribelaw
The prediction I made 2 hours ago proved right more quickly than I expected: Trump is now headed directly to conviction in DC for corruptly plotting to upend the Constitution’s system for transferring the executive power to the winner of the quadrennial presidential election ⬇️
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Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️
@tribelaw
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This is why we can confidently expect Judge Chutkan to reject Mr. Trump’s immunity defense in his DC trial for criminally trying to overturn the election and seize power, a trial in which I fully expect him to be convicted, thereby losing much of his current support in the polls. twitter.com/judgeluttig/st…