American President’s do NOT have absolute immunity from civil or criminal misdeeds….
Never did….
Donald Trump is unlikely to get it either, in the end, when the Supreme’s finally have the question before them…
(Trump’s lawyers are frontin g the view that the ONLY body that can charge and convict an American President of civil or criminal charges is the US Congress)
But?
Trump keeps running out the clock ticking for the November Presidential Election vote hoping to get another shot at the White House to have HIS Justice Dept. throw out the cases against him…
A three-judge panel during a hearing Tuesday appeared broadly skeptical of former President Trump’s claims that he enjoys broad presidential immunity from prosecution on charges related to the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyers took a firm position, arguing former presidents such as Trump can only face prosecution if they are first impeached and then convicted by the Senate. They have asked the court to toss the case entirely.
But the three-judge panel appeared poised to reject those arguments, warning that Congress may not always choose to impeach a president for unlawful conduct, and that such a stance would prohibit prosecutors from later acting on new evidence of crimes if it went unweighted by the Senate.
Trump attended the hearing in person before the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, leaving the campaign trail less than a week before the Iowa caucuses to travel to the nation’s capital. Trump’s legal travails have helped him on the campaign trail, where he has a big lead on GOP rivals in Iowa and nationally….
…
Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, said Trump’s argument gives executives too much leeway.
“I think it is paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal laws,” she said.
James Pearce, who led the arguments for special counsel Jack Smith’s team, joined the judges in echoing those arguments…..
Trump got no traction with his court house appaearnce which has gotten to be almost a normality….
Trump’s Court Appearance Wasn’t a Show Stopper
“If Donald Trump’s goal on Tuesday was to turn a weighty legal proceeding in Washington into a de facto campaign appearance that galvanized media attention, he fell short,” the New York Times reports.
“Six days before the Iowa caucuses, the former president used the arguments before a federal appeals court over whether he is immune from prosecution to hone a strategy he has deployed repeatedly over the past year and intends to use more as the political season heats up and his legal problems come to a head: standing in or near a courthouse, portraying himself as a victim.”
“But in this case, the federal courthouse was a relatively inhospitable setting. The security protocols and the ban on cameras in federal courthouses did not lend themselves easily to the kind of displays Mr. Trump has made at the four arraignments for the indictments he is facing, where he has commanded intensive coverage and the chance to cast the prosecutions as political persecution.”
Vanity Fair: Trump is campaigning from courtrooms now.