WASHINGTON (CN) — Donald Trump's legal team on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss his federal election subversion case, claiming the former president's actions between the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were protected under presidential immunity.
John Lauro, Trump's lead lawyer in Washington, writes in the 52-page motion that his client's actions were well within "the outer perimeter" of the president's official responsibility, a legal standard that provides a wide range of protection for the executive from political prosecution after leaving office.
"Breaking 234 years of precedent, the incumbent administration has charged President Trump for acts that lie not just within the 'outer perimeter,' but at the heart of this official duties as President," Lauro wrote. "In doing so, the prosecution does not, and cannot, argue that President Trump's efforts to ensure election integrity, and to advocate for the same, were outside the scope of his duties."
Lauro continues, arguing that the special counsel wrongly claims that Trump had a corrupt motive in spreading claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and therefore his claims were well outside of the bounds of his presidential duties. In his view, Trump’s motivation doesn’t matter, as he “is absolutely immune from prosecution.”
That view is yet to be tested in the courts, which Lauro acknowledges; it expands upon a D.C. Circuit ruling in Nixon v. Fitzgerald, which stated former President Richard Nixon couldn't be held liable for damages in a civil suit related to his official responsibilities.
The ruling set the “outer perimeter” immunity standard Lauro now argues should apply to criminal prosecution. He cautioned that failing to apply the standard could weaken the separation of powers and chill the powers of the chief executive by allowing political opponents to influence the president by threatening criminal prosecution.
Lauro also argued that Trump already faced judgment over his connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol during impeachment proceedings. The Senate acquitted Trump after the House impeached him for a second time.
“Because the Constitution specifies that only ‘the party convicted’ by trial in the Senate may be ‘liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment,’ it presupposes that a president who is not convicted may not be subject to criminal prosecution,” Lauro wrote.
He referenced a section in another founding document, Federalist Papers No. 69, that says, “a president may be ‘impeached, tried, and, upon conviction … would afterward be liable to prosecution and punishment.”
The excerpt, however, relates to a list of crimes that could merely lead to removal from office, whereas liability falls under a separate clause — one not predicated on a prior conviction in the Senate. (In writing the section, Alexander Hamilton tried to distinguish the presidential office from the British monarchy, which had been deemed “sacred and inviolable” with no possible punishment without “involving the crisis of a national revolution.”)
Trump's motion is his most recent effort to throw a wrench in the Washington proceedings, coming off the heels of a failed effort to force Chutkan to recuse herself over allegations of bias against the ex-president and Republican frontrunner.
Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four counts for conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, outright obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, along with the 87 other criminal counts he faces across three indictments in federal court in Florida for his mishandling of classified documents, state court in Georgia for election interference and in Manhattan for falsifying business records.
Despite his ever-increasing legal woes, Trump has raised upwards of $45.5 million since he arrived in Fulton County, Georgia, to take a mug shot as part of his criminal case there.
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