WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is not immune to his persecution choice interference case in Washington, a federal judge ruled Friday, overturning the Republican's bid to derail the case by accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is a sharp rejection of challenges Trump's defense team had made to the four-count indictment ahead of a trial expected to focus on efforts multiple of the Republican to undo the election won by the Democrat. Joe Biden.
While the judge struck back Trump's expansive view of presidential power, the order may not be the last word in the legal fight. Lawyers for Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, are expected to appeal quickly to fight what they say is an unresolved legal issue.
In his ruling, Chutkan said the president's office “does not confer a life-long get-out-of-jail step.”
“Former presidents do not enjoy special conditions on their federal criminal liability,” Chutkan wrote. “The defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal act committed while in office.”
Chutkan also rejected Trump's claims that the indictment violates the former president's free speech rights. Trump's lawyers had argued that he was within his First Amendment rights to challenge the outcome of the election and to claim it was tainted by fraud, and accused prosecutors of trying to criminalize political speech and advocacy politics.
But Chutkan said it is “well established that the First Amendment does not protect speech that is used as an instrument of a crime.”
“The defendant is not being prosecuted simply for making false statements … but for knowingly making false statements in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy and obstructing the election process,” he wrote.
A lawyer for Trump declined to comment Friday evening.
His ruling comes on the same day that a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that lawsuits filed by Democratic lawmakers and police officers who have accused Trump of inciting riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, can move forward.
The appeals court in that case rejected Trump's claims that presidential immunity shields him from liability, but left the door open for him to continue fighting, as cases move forward, to try to prove that the his actions were taken in his official capacity as president.
Trump's legal team had argued that the criminal case, which is scheduled to go to trial in March, should be dismissed because the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner is shielded from prosecution for actions he took while complying with his duties as president. They say the actions detailed in the indictment, including pressuring state officials over the administration of the election, cut to the core Trump's responsibilities as commander-in-chief.
The Supreme Court has held that presidents are immune from civil liability for actions related to their official duties, but the justices have never dealt with the question of whether that immunity extends to criminal prosecution.
The Justice Department has also ruled that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. Trump's lawyers are trying to secure the same protection for a former president for actions taken while in office, saying no prosecutor since the beginning of American democracy has had the authority to bring such charges.
“Against the weight of this history, the defendant essentially argues that because no other former president has been criminally prosecuted, it would be unconstitutional to begin now,” Chutkan wrote. “But while the prosecution of a former president is unprecedented, so are allegations that a president committed the crimes of which the defendant is accused.”
Special counsel Jack Smith's team has said there is nothing in the Constitution, or in court precedent, to support the idea that a former president cannot be prosecuted for criminal conduct committed in the White House.
“The accused is not above the law. He is subject to federal criminal laws like more than 330 million other Americans, including members of Congress, federal judges and everyday citizens,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
It's one of four criminal cases Trump faces as he seeks to win back the White House in 2024.
Smith has separately accused Trump in Florida of illegally stockpiling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House. Trump is also accused in Georgia of conspiring to overturn his election loss to Biden. And he faces charges in New York related to hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign.
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Richer reported from Boston.
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