![Appeals Court Shoots Down Trump Immunity Claim Appeals Court Shoots Down Trump Immunity Claim](https://republicanview.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2024/02/shutterstock_1922793134-1-696x464.jpg)
(RepublicanView.org) – The US Court of Appeals has rejected Donald Trump’s claim of Presidential immunity in the federal election case against him. The three-judge panel said President Trump has “become citizen Trump” and, as such, enjoys only the rights afforded to all American citizens.
The ruling stated that it would not accept that Trump had “unbounded authority” to commit crimes and “neutralize” checks on executive powers. It would also not permit the former President to undermine the votes of the electorate, as this would “collapse our system of separated powers.”
On his Truth Social media account, the former President responded to the decision saying a President must have immunity to carry out the duties of office, and called for the ruling to be overturned. “This decision would terribly injure not only the Presidency, but the Life, Breath, and Success of our Country,” he wrote.
Trump filed a motion last year to dismiss the charges brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith. His request for dismissal was rejected, and Counsel Smith appealed to the US Supreme Court to resolve the matter, but the Court refused and sent the question to the Appeals Court, which has now delivered its ruling.
Jack Smith filed the charges against Donald Trump last August. It followed an investigation by the House Select Committee into the events of January 6, 2021, on Capitol Hill. The Committee voted in December 2022 to refer the matter to the Justice Department to decide on charges against Trump, and Jack Smith took it up from there.
On August 1, 2023, a grand jury approved an indictment, and Trump was charged with two felony counts of disrupting an official proceeding, one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one felony count of conspiracy against rights.
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