The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected disgraced former President Trump’s “absolute immunity” defense against a number of lawsuits brought against him by several members of Congress and Capitol police officers for his inciting the January 6th MAGA insurrection.
The decision just might kind of have some not-good implications for Trump’s defense in his criminal case in DC for the failed coup attempt, as the court ruled “When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act. The Office of the Presidency as an institution is agnostic about who will occupy it next. And campaigning to gain that office is not an official act of the office. So, when a sitting President running for a second term attends a private fundraiser for his re-election effort, hires (or fires) his campaign staff, cuts a political ad supporting his candidacy, or speaks at a campaign rally funded and organized by his re-election campaign committee, he is not carrying out the official duties of the presidency.”
“He is acting as office-seeker, not office-holder – no less than are the persons running against him when they take precisely the same actions in their competing campaigns to attain precisely the same office. President Trump himself recognized that he engaged in his campaign to win re-election – including his post-election efforts to alter the declared results in his favor – in his personal capacity as presidential candidate, not in his official capacity as sitting President. That is evident in his effort to intervene in the Supreme Court’s consideration of a post-election lawsuit challenging the administration of the election in various battleground states. He expressly filed his motion in the Supreme Court ‘in his personal capacity as candidate for reelection to the office of President’ rather than in his official capacity as sitting President.” It keeps going but you get the gist.