Former Republican President Donald Trump's legal team argued in court on Tuesday that their client had absolute immunity from criminal prosecutions.
While talking with reporters after their appeals court hearing, Trump lawyer John Lauro warned that Democratic President Joe Biden could be prosecuted because the Department of Justice during his presidency brought criminal charges against Trump.
Lauro told the gathered press:
"We can't have a country where every four years there is a cycle of political recrimination where one administration attacks a prior administration, when in fact that candidate is leading in the polls and will be the next president of the United States."
"As our legal team, and our appellant team, made clear, that would be a disaster for our country, and direct attack on democracy and that cannot happen."
"In fact, Joe Biden could be prosecuted for trying to stop this man from becoming the next President of the United States."
"We don't need political prosecutions."
You can watch Lauro's remarks here:
However, Lauro ignored facts to make his argument.
A bipartisan House Select Committee investigated the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol—not the Biden administration. Based on J6 Committee findings, the House of Representatives made a criminal referral to the Justice Department against Trump.
There has been no evidence President Biden demanded the federal prosecution of Trump or participated in criminal investigations in any way. Trump's legal team—as with most of Trump's claims—failed to provide any evidence of President Biden's involvement before or after Lauro's remarks.
Lauro also undercut his own legal strategy.
Trump's lawyer suggested President Biden could be charged and prosecuted when he leaves office for actions taken by a federal agency when he was President, contradicting the Trump team's entire absolute presidential immunity claim.
As with other unsupported Trump claims, most people aren’t buying what Lauro is selling.
Some speculated the entire Trump team legal strategy was focused on making their client happy, not any legally sound arguments.
@AccountableGOP So Trump can\xe2\x80\x99t be prosecuted for trying to prevent Biden from taking office after he was elected, but Biden could be prosecuted because DOJ tried to prosecute Trump for trying to steal the election from Biden.— (@)
@AccountableGOP There is nothing you can say or do to confront MAGA gaslighting that won\xe2\x80\x99t be met with more MAGA gaslighting\n\nThey\xe2\x80\x99ll say anything to make themselves the victim and hero in everything. And there is nothing you can say to do anything about it.\n\nThat is the MAGA gaslighting paradox— (@)
In his own remarks to the press, Trump stated:
“What a sad situation it is."
"I want to thank you, everybody, for the fairness. We’ve been covered very fairly."
Trump added:
"Most people agree that we’re entitled, as a President, to immunity."
Which is yet another Trump claim made without evidence.
Court watchers universally observed the three-judge panel overseeing today's arguments were quite skeptical of the absolute immunity argument made by Trump's legal team.
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