The special prosecutor investigating the case against Donald Trump for attempting to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 elections states, in a document made public on Wednesday, October 2, that the Republican was acting as a candidate. This means that he may not benefit from presidential immunity in this matter.
In a voluminous 165-page written argument, largely redacted to preserve the anonymity of witnesses, presented last week to Judge Tanya Chutkan, prosecutor Jack Smith seeks to demonstrate the private nature of the acts for which the former is being prosecuted. republican president.
According to him, these acts are not covered by the broad criminal immunity granted to the president of the United States by the Supreme Court in an unprecedented decision on July 1.
This document includes previously undisclosed elements of the dossier, such as testimony from a senior White House official at the time, reporting on a surprise conversation between Donald Trump, his wife, daughter and son-in-law aboard the presidential helicopter.
“It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the elections, you have to fight like a dog”Donald Trump would have told them, according to this testimony that the prosecution intends to present in a future trial.
Trump’s outraged messages
Following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election won by Democratic candidate Joe Biden, “With the help of private accomplices, the defendant embarked on a series of increasingly desperate schemes to overturn legitimate results in seven states he had lost.” barely, writes Jack Smith. These attempts culminated in the assault on the Capitol, the sanctuary of American democracy, by hundreds of ardent supporters of Donald Trump, he recalls.
“The heart of the plan was private in nature. He extensively used private actors and their campaign structures to attempt to overturn the election results and acted in his private capacity as a candidate.concludes the special prosecutor.
The former president and current Republican candidate reacted to this publication in a series of indignant messages on his social network La Verdad, denouncing a document “riddled with falsehoods” and accusing the outgoing Democratic administration of“electoral interference”.
By a majority of six votes to three – conservative judges against progressives – the Supreme Court considered that the president did not enjoy “no immunity for his unofficial acts” but there was “right to at least a presumption of immunity for official acts”.
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Beset by several criminal proceedings, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to go to trial as late as possible, at least after the November 5 vote. If he were elected again, once he takes office in January 2025, he could order a halt to federal proceedings against him.
