Former US president Donald Trump may have gotten a breather from his legal woes as US District Judge Tanya Chutkan Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington will be put on hold as the former president explores if he has immunity.
Judge Chutkan on December 2 ruled that Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution in his election interference case in Washington but Donald Trump and his legal team asked the federal appeals court in Washington to reverse that outcome.
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Donald Trump sought immunity in October in a bid to dismiss the federal case accusing him of trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election citing that US Presidents are immune from criminal charges.
Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed last year to probe if the former president indulged in possible criminal activity in two cases, is attempting to bypass the federal appeals court, a usual step in the process and have the Supreme Court take up the matter directly.
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“This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin,” Smith and fellow prosecutors wrote urging the US Supreme Court Tuesday.
The Supreme Court of the US, which has a 6-3 Conservative majority based due to justices Trump appointed during his presidential tenure, will meet on January 5 but it is unclear if they will convene sooner to take up Smith’s request.
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Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court has cast doubts on the fate of the case itself by saying that it will hear a challenge filed against the charges lodged against former president Donald Trump and hundreds of his supporters who took part in the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The apex court of the US will hear challenges to the charge of “obstruction of an official proceeding” filed against Trump and January 6 rioters. Trump and the rioters are accused of disrupting the January 6, 2021 congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Joseph Fischer, an ex-police officer who is among more than 300 Trump supporters also charged with obstruction, has sought to get the charge dismissed.
This could have a knock-on effect on Trump’s trial for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results and the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by the end of its term in June — around four months before the November 4 presidential election.
Biden Impeachment Probe
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives voted Wednesday in favour of opening a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden accusing his son, Hunter Biden, of using his father’s role as vice-president during former US president Barack Obama’s tenure to “influence-peddle”.
Republicans accuse Hunter of influence-peddling – which means he effectively traded on the family name in pay-to-play schemes during his business dealings in Ukraine and China.
The vote of 221 to 212 was along strict party lines, with every Republican voting for it and every Democrat against.
This inquiry will allow Republicans to shift the focus of the US public from Donald Trump’s legal woes and pose challenges to Biden’s reelection campaign.
There are questions surrounding the legality of the impeachment proceedings as Republicans have yet to provide evidence of corruption by the President. The inquiry may not even lead to an actual impeachment trial as the Democratic Party-led US Senate will be unlikely to convict Biden.
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“As President Biden continues to stonewall lawful Congressional subpoenas, today’s vote of the full House of Representatives authorising the inquiry puts us in the strongest position to enforce these subpoenas in court,” said House Republican Elise Stefanik, a member of party leadership.
Biden slammed the move in a lengthy statement by saying: “Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts”.
Roundup of Legal Cases Faced by Trump
Former US President Donald Trump was indicted in August for conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of obstruction for his efforts to upend the results of the 2020 election won by Biden. He is accused of trying to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims he won the 2020 election.
He and his two eldest sons are also embroiled in a civil fraud case in New York where they are accused of inflating the value of their real estate properties due to which they may have received more favourable bank loans and insurance terms.
He also faces federal charges for alleged mishandling of top secret documents after he left the White House and has been indicted for racketeering in Georgia on accusations that he tried to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.
(with inputs from AP, AFP and Reuters)
