Appeals court denies Trump immunity in 2020 criminal election case

Donald Trump is not immune from criminal prosecution for efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 presidential election, a federal appeals court said in a unanimous ruling Tuesday.

A three-judge appeals panel flatly rejected Trump’s argument that he could not be charged in the case because he was president at the time of the alleged crimes.

“We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter,” said the panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the panel wrote in a 57-page opinion. “But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”