A former U.S. attorney said former President Donald Trump's legal stance in Washington, D.C., is "ridiculous."
Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. He denies all charges, which relate to his alleged involvement in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and his role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Joyce Vance wrote in a Substack post that Trump's opposition to a motion filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith to bypass an appeals court on the question of immunity was contradictory because it asked for the decision to be reviewed without haste.
"Importance does not automatically necessitate speed," Trump's lawyers said. "If anything, the opposite is usually true. Novel, complex, sensitive and historic issues—such as the existence of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts—call for more careful deliberation, not less."
At the same time, Trump is arguing he should be immune from charges altogether.
"It's as though Trump says to the Court, 'Yes, your honors, I'm under indictment and I've asked you to dismiss the charges as legally meritless, but there's no hurry. Please take your time, lots of it,'" Vance wrote. "Stepping back and looking at this through that lens, Trump's position is a little ridiculous. More than a little."
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's lawyers via email for comment.
The former president's team also said a decision shouldn't be made at "breakneck speed."
"Smith isn't calling for breakneck speed, he's calling for the Supreme Court to let the matter skip the Court of Appeals and go directly to the Supreme Court," Vance said.
Smith filed an 81-page motion this month after Trump's request for immunity was denied by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. It is awaiting an appeal.
Likely envisaging the matter going to the Supreme Court, Smith filed the motion there early and asked if "a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin."
Speed in the trial could be key for prosecutors because of Trump's 2024 presidential run. In theory, Trump could pardon himself of all charges if he is elected president again, something that experts continue to argue about because no president has ever attempted to exercise that power on himself.
In their legal response to Smith's motion, Trump's lawyers wrote that "no President ever faced criminal prosecution for his official acts," something that Vance, appointed by President Barack Obama, also took issue with.
"That, of course, is not a fair criticism of the prosecution," she said. "It simply reflects that Trump is the first president in those 234 years to try to interfere with the transfer of power following an election. It's not the point in Trump's favor that his lawyers seem to think it is."
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Benjamin Lynch is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is U.S. politics and national affairs and he ... Read more
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