WASHINGTON: Lawyers for former President Donald Trump has asked a federal court to dismiss charges that he unlawfully removed classified papers from the White House upon leaving office, pleading the former President is protected by presidential immunity.
This case involving Donlad Trump taking classified documents with him to his house in Florida and thwarting detectives’ efforts to recover them is one of four criminal indictments the former President faces as he runs for a 2nd presidential term.
Trump Seeks Dismissal of Classified Papers Case
Trump has requested not guilty to the 40-count indictment brought in Florida by special lawyer Jack Smith. In a 20-page motion, lawyers for Donald Trump argued the court that when he taken the papers from the White House, it was an authorized act.
It said that Trump made this act during his tenure and the alleged action was an official act, and as such is subject to presidential immunity. Similarly, Trump has utilized the same argument against a federal indictment charging him with conspiring to cling to power following his 2020 polls loss to President Joe Biden in an arrangement that culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump supporters.
Earlier, a federal appeals court had ruled his immunity claim is “unsupported” by the American Constitution. Donald Trump then filed to the Supreme Court in an effort to have the ruling deferred.
The question of whether an ex-president of the US is immune from trial is an untested one in American jurisprudence because until Donald Trump, a former head of the state had never been charged with a crime.
