NEWSWEEK
The panel of judges who rejected Donald Trump‘s claims of presidential immunity on Tuesday gave the former president six days to appeal his case to the United States Supreme Court before it goes back to Judge Tanya Chutkan.
Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Counsel Jack Smith last year charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights in connection to the investigation. The charges were over the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the alleged plot to submit false slates of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. Trump maintains his innocence and has pleaded not guilty to all charges, accusing prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes.
On Tuesday, a Washington, D.C., appeals court denied Trump’s claims that presidential immunity should shield him from facing trial in the case, ruling that “any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
The three judges who made the unanimous ruling—Judges J. Michelle Childs, Karen LeCraft Henderson and Florence Pan—ordered a clerk to issue the mandate on February 13, which would send the case back to Tanya Chutkan, the D.C. judge tasked with overseeing the trial unless an appeal to the Supreme Court is made.
