On Tuesday, during a hearing in the appeals trial on the January 6, 2021 assault on Congress, in which Trump is indicted for attempting to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, three federal judges said they were skeptical that Trump may be granted immunity. The request to grant it was made by his lawyers, who argue that Trump cannot be tried for alleged crimes committed while he was still in office as president.
The outcome of the trial and the time in which it will end are crucial: last month a judge rejected the request for immunity and Trump’s lawyers had appealed, in what is also considered a strategy to delay the timing of the trial, postponing it until after the 2024 elections, thus allowing Trump to run and possibly win.
According to the three judges of the federal appeals court in Washington, where Tuesday’s hearing took place, there are strong doubts whether absolute immunity can be provided for presidents. Suggesting possible implications to such a possibility, one of the three judges he said that if this were the case, a president could theoretically sell military secrets or have one of his political rivals assassinated by the army without suffering repercussions, for example if he were not subjected to impeachment proceedings, i.e. removal from office.
Another judge defined «paradoxical» the possibility that a president, who has the constitutional duty to ensure compliance with the laws, could in fact be authorized to violate them without suffering repercussions. Demonstrating the importance of the outcome of this trial, Trump himself also showed up at the hearing, even though he was not obliged to do so.