CBS NEWS
Washington — A federal appeals court in Washington found former President Donald Trump is not entitled to broad immunity from federal prosecution, delivering a landmark decision that would allow the criminal case against the former president involving the 2020 presidential election to move forward if the ruling is upheld.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in its opinion Tuesday that it is upholding the decision from a lower court denying him absolute immunity from prosecution.
“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the panel, consisting of Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Michelle Childs and Florence Pan, wrote in its opinion. “But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
Trump is expected to appeal the decision either to the full D.C. Circuit or the Supreme Court. The D.C. Circuit gave Trump until Feb. 12 to ask the nation’s highest court to pause its decision before it takes effect.
The D.C. Circuit’s Trump immunity decision
The three-judge panel first established in its 57-page opinion that it has jurisdiction to consider the merits of Trump’s appeal, addressing an issue that was raised in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by a liberal watchdog group in the case.
Turning to the issue of whether Trump is “categorically immune” from federal prosecution for any acts he took within the “outer perimeter” of his duties while in office, the judges rejected all three grounds advanced by Trump for establishing sweeping protection for former presidents.
“The separation of powers doctrine, as expounded in Marbury and its progeny, necessarily permits the Judiciary to oversee the federal criminal prosecution of a former president for his official acts because the fact of the prosecution means that the former president has allegedly acted in defiance of the Congress’s laws,” the panel wrote, referencing Marbury v. Madison, the landmark decision that established the principle of judicial review. “Although certain discretionary actions may be insulated from judicial review, the structure of the Constitution mandates that the president is ‘amenable to the laws for his conduct’ and ‘cannot at his discretion’ violate them.”
Trump, the judges said, allegedly violated criminal laws, so those acts were not within the scope of his lawful discretion. They warned that accepting Trump’s legal argument would place those who are elected president beyond the reach of all three branches of government…
