Ex-President Donald Trump believes that a federal appeals court’s rejection of his unprecedented claim to immunity from criminal prosecution could result in prison sentences for two of his predecessors — Barack Obama and George Bush — as well as his successor in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Trump shared his thoughts in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, stating that his denial of absolute immunity could have a ripple effect that would pave the way for the imprisonment of other former presidents.
“If a President does not have Immunity, the Opposing Party, during his/her term in Office, can extort and blackmail the President by saying that, ‘if you don’t give us everything we want, we will Indict you for things you did while in Office,’ even if everything done was totally Legal and Appropriate,” argued Trump in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
“That would be the end of the Presidency, and our Country, as we know it, and is just one of the many traps there would be for a President without Presidential Immunity. Obama, Bush, and soon, Crooked Joe Biden, would all be in PRISON. Protect Presidential Immunity,” Trump wrote.
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion declaring that Trump can be prosecuted for criminal acts he is alleged to have committed as president.
The unanimous ruling, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, dealt a major blow to Trump’s defense team.
“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution,” the court wrote.
Trump and his defense team are expected to appeal the ruling.
“President Trump respectfully disagrees with the DC Circuit’s decision and will appeal it in order to safeguard the Presidency and the Constitution,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Trump faces four counts from special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion charges, including conspiring to defraud the United States and to obstruct an official proceeding.
The charges stem from Trump’s encouragement of the riot at Capitol Hill on January 6 that Smith described as an “unprecedented assault” on democracy.
“It was fueled by lies: Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government — the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Smith said.
Now, without the protection of absolute immunity, Trump faces potential imprisonment for his involvement in inciting the riot at Capitol Hill.
