Federal appeals court denies Trump immunity claim in election subversion trial
A federal appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted for charges related to attempting to overturn the 2020 election because the alleged misconduct occurred while he was acting is his capacity as president, Reuters reports.
The three judges hearing the matter at the Washington DC-based US court of appeals ruled unanimously against the former president. They had appeared skeptical of the immunity claim last month, when an attorney for Trump made his case before the court. Here’s more about that:
Key events
In their decision, the federal appeals court judges Florence Pan, Karen Henderson and Michelle Childs were sharply critical of Donald Trump’s arguments, saying that he essentially wanted to make presidents immune from accountability:
We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power – the recognition and implementation of election results. Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the Executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and to have their votes count.
At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches. Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the President, the Congress could not legislate, the Executive could not prosecute and the Judiciary could not review. We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.
Childs and Pan were appointed to the bench by Joe Biden. The Republican former president George HW Bush appointed Henderson.
Donald Trump’s trial on federal charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election was supposed to start in less than a month, but last week, the judge delayed it, because the question of whether he was immune had not been resolved yet. Here’s more on that:
A US judge has formally postponed Donald Trump’s trial on federal charges that the former president sought to overturn the 2020 election results.
The trial was due to start on 4 March in Washington before the delay ordered from the federal judge Tanya Chutkan.
Trial delays in general are not unusual in court cases. The delay in Trump’s trial in particular stems from an appeal by the ex-president that claims he is immune to prosecution for actions taken while he was in the Oval Office.
Chutkan had indicated in January that Trump’s original trial date – chosen last summer – would not hold because the case had been frozen by the former president’s appeal.
The judge has prohibited prosecutors from filing motions while the appeal is pending and made clear that Trump’s legal team would get a full seven-month period to prepare for the trial. Any time between December and the end of the appeals process would not count against that preparation period, Chutkan has also said.
Federal appeals court denies Trump immunity claim in election subversion trial
A federal appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted for charges related to attempting to overturn the 2020 election because the alleged misconduct occurred while he was acting is his capacity as president, Reuters reports.
The three judges hearing the matter at the Washington DC-based US court of appeals ruled unanimously against the former president. They had appeared skeptical of the immunity claim last month, when an attorney for Trump made his case before the court. Here’s more about that:
House Republicans may lack votes to impeach Mayorkas amid defections
House Republicans may fail in their attempt planned for this afternoon impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, after two lawmakers announced they would vote against the charges.
The GOP controls Congress’s lower chamber by just one seat, but two Republicans say they will not support the effort to bring charges of ignoring laws and breaching the public trust against Mayorkas.
Ken Buck of Colorado has long been skeptical of the effort, and made his opposition official yesterday:
Secretary Mayorkas will be remembered as the worst Secretary of Homeland Security in history. While inexcusable, this incompetence is not constitutional grounds for an impeachment.
Read my thoughts below ⬇️ https://t.co/GFeFFg9S4S
— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) February 5, 2024
Just a few minutes ago, Tom McClintock of California said he would vote no:
The only way to stop the border invasion is to replace the Biden administration at the ballot box. Swapping one leftist for another is a fantasy, solves nothing, excuses Biden’s culpability, and unconstitutionally expands impeachment that someday will bite Republicans.
— Tom McClintock (@RepMcClintock) February 6, 2024
If all Democrats vote against the articles, that will block their passage in the House. Even if the articles are approved, the Democratic-controlled Senate is certain to reject them.
The White House is continuing what appears to be a quixotic effort to get House Republicans to support the immigration policy bill.
“This is a moment of truth for House Republicans. After opposing the record border security funding Joe Biden has signed into law every year of his presidency, will the House GOP finally say ‘yes’ to securing our border and putting the needs of families above partisan games?” Joe Biden’s deputy press secretary Andrew Bates asked in a memo released this morning.
He continued:
Will House Republicans say ‘yes’ to more law enforcement like the Border Patrol, whose union supports the bipartisan deal, or will they instead say ‘yes’ to more fentanyl and to Donald Trump’s insistence that border security be delayed in the name of politics?
The critical choice in front of House Republicans will define the legacy of their narrow majority. And it is House Republicans’ last meaningful chance to stop blocking the President from securing the border, a streak that goes back to their obstruction of his Day One comprehensive immigration reform plan.
Like Sen. Thom Tillis said last month, ‘You don’t knowingly make this country less safe for political points.’ And Like Rep. Patrick McHenry said two weeks ago, ‘If we keep extending the pain and creating more suffering, we will pay the price.’
Citing Trump’s rise, top Senate Republican encourages lawmakers to vote against immigration bill – report
In a behind-closed-doors meeting last night, the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, told his lawmakers that if they didn’t like what was in the immigration policy bill that he had demanded be negotiated then they should vote against it, Punchbowl News reports.
The reason why? Essentially, Donald Trump. Per Punchbowl, the Republican minority leader cited the shifting national mood on immigration, a euphemism for the fact that Trump is now nearly assured to win the GOP presidential nomination again, and wants to campaign on his own draconian approach to the issue. For his part, the former president encouraged lawmakers to reject the bill yesterday.
Remember that McConnell and other Republicans had initially demanded the immigration policy changes as their price for supporting aid to Israel and Ukraine’s militaries. With the legislation to do that facing what appears to be insurmountable opposition ahead of its first Senate vote scheduled for Wednesday, Republicans have managed to kill not only the prospect of enacting some of the strict policies they’ve demanded, but also assistance to two countries Washington views as national security priorities.
Amid growing opposition to immigration deal, House Republicans prepare to impeach Mayorkas
Yesterday, the House of Representatives’ Republican leaders made clear they would not, under any circumstances, support a bill to change immigration policy negotiated in the Senate, even though it contains many of the hardline policies they have demanded. Their opposition likely dooms the prospects of Congress approving new military aid to Ukraine’s beleaguered military, or to Israel, because the GOP demanded immigration policy be overhauled in order to approve new assistance. But far from looking for other ways to work with Joe Biden and the Democrats, House Republicans are doubling down on their confrontational stance today, by holding a floor vote in the afternoon on the articles of impeachment against the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. They accuse him of mishandling border security, and while it’s unclear if the impeachment vote, a rare occurrence against a cabinet secretary, will succeed, the Democratic-led Senate is sure to reject the articles.
The biggest consequence of the deadlock over the immigration bill is that there is no obvious way to for Congress to find consensus on aiding either country, particularly with the far right turned against Ukraine. The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, is nonetheless planning to also call a vote today on a standalone aid package for Israel, but Biden has threatened to veto it, arguing it must be coupled with the immigration bill and the aid to Kyiv.
And if that wasn’t enough, here’s what else is going on today:
-
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will at 5.30pm ET hold a White House reception in honor of Black History Month.
-
The treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, will appear before the House financial services committee starting at 10am to discuss the stability of America’s financial system, though lawmakers will likely interrogate her about plenty of other subjects.
-
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre will answer reporters’ questions at 1.30pm.
