WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump confirmed late Sunday night that he would be attending a federal appeals court hearing on presidential immunity this week.
The former president claims he should have “absolute immunity” from charges in his 2020 election subversion case, explaining that he is “entitled” to it.
“I wasn’t campaigning, the election was long over. I was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, which is my obligation to do, and otherwise running our country,” Trump wrote in his TruthSocial post.
The former president’s legal team said that Trump should be immune from prosecution in the case because the conduct noted in the indictment happened while he was in office.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear arguments on Tuesday on the immunity question and has signaled that it intends to move quickly, though additional appeals are still likely after that.
The arguments are crucial because they concern the legally untested question of whether a former president is immune from prosecution and because the outcome is expected to help determine the fate and timing of the case.
Trump’s immunity argument was rejected last month by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing his case. However, Chutkan agreed to pause the proceedings while Trump appealed the decision, Axios reported.
Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the effort against the former president, requested SCOTUS fast-track consideration on the matter but it was also rejected last month.
Smith has rebuffed Trump’s claim that he should get immunity in the case.
Trump’s appeal suspended his trial, which is currently set to take place in March. The federal appeals court hearing is slated to begin at 9:30 am ET Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Lawyers for Trump on Thursday pressed to have Smith’s team held in contempt, saying the prosecutors had taken steps to advance the 2020 election interference case against him in violation of a judge’s order last month that temporarily put the case on hold.
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment on the motion. The motion says that Trump’s lawyers have conferred with prosecutors, who object to the defense attorneys’ request.
The election case is one of four criminal prosecutions against Trump. He is charged in Florida with illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, and faces a state prosecution in Georgia that accuses him of trying to subvert that state’s 2020 presidential election as well as a New York case charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
