Aviva Fried (US correspondent) / Photo credits: KENT NISHIMURA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
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8:36 a.m., January 10, 2024
The big favorite in the Republican primaries for the next presidential election believes that he cannot be prosecuted for acts committed when he was still in the White House. At the Federal Court of Appeal in Washington, his lawyers even claim “absolute immunity”.
Leaving the hearing at the Federal Court of Appeal in Washington, Donald Trump broke into a press conference. He insisted that the debates were tilted in his favor, that his arguments were unstoppable and above all that the proceedings against him are purely political. As a reminder, he is accused in this case of having attempted to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election.
The former president, already in the crosshairs for having incited the Capitol riots, drove the point home again with barely veiled threats against Joe Biden and his supporters. “The polls show them losing, but they are trying to win like that. But it’s not working. It will be chaos in the country. It’s a very bad thing,” he said.
Strategy before the presidential elections
The judges of the Court of Appeal appeared unappealed by the arguments of the former president’s defense, even going so far as to ask whether granting presidential immunity did not amount to authorizing political assassinations.
But ultimately, the substance of the debate does not matter for the moment for Donald Trump; if the judges rule in his favor, he has won everything. Otherwise, he will continue his legal journey probably up to the Supreme Court and he will undoubtedly have accomplished what he is looking for: delay his trials as much as possible so that, if possible, they do not take place before the elections. .