Former President Trump traded snowy Iowa for a court appearance in Washington on Tuesday, where his legal arguments about immunity invited a chilly judicial response.
The three-judge panel’s reception to Trump’s presidential immunity claims regarding charges related to the 2020 election was broadly skeptical.
Trump attended the hearing before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, leaving the campaign trail less than a week before the Iowa caucuses. His lawyers took a firm position, arguing former presidents can only face prosecution if they are first impeached and then convicted by the Senate.
They suggested Tuesday that even a president directing SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent would be an action barred from prosecution. Trump’s legal team has asked the court to toss the case entirely; in all likelihood, it will make its way to the Supreme Court.
THE JUDGES APPEARED POISED TO REJECT Trump’s arguments, warning that Congress may not always choose to impeach a president for unlawful conduct, and that such a stance would prohibit prosecutors from later acting on new evidence of crimes if it went unweighed by the Senate (The Hill and Politico).
What kind of world are we living in … if a president orders his SEAL team to murder a political rival and then resigns or is not impeached — that is not a crime?” asked James Pearce, who led the arguments for special counsel Jack Smith’s team. “I think that is an extraordinarily frightening future that should weigh heavily on the court’s decision.”
MOST AMERICANS DISAGREE with Trump’s argument that he should be immune from prosecution. In a Tuesday poll by CBS News/YouGov, more than 6 in 10 participants (64 percent) disagreed with Trump’s argument, while about 36 percent said the former president should have immunity.
- Axios: Trump warns of “bedlam in the country” if he loses election while being prosecuted.
- The New York Times: Allegations against District Attorney Fani Willis (D) bolster Trump’s criticisms of his Georgia case.
- CNN: Ray Epps, a man at the center of right-wing conspiracy theories, was sentenced to one year probation for his actions on Jan. 6.
Tuesday’s court appearance marked yet another case of Trump’s legal issues. The former president faces civil and criminal trials in several jurisdictions — from D.C. to New York City to Fulton County, Ga. — which are interfering in his campaign schedule. And the issue that is only set to get thornier as both the primaries and his legal calendar ramp up. But despite scheduling puzzles, the prosecutions are helping Trump among his voter base.
According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s average of polls, the former president has a 52.9 percent lead over his primary rivals. With 64.4 percent support, he vastly outpaces former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has 11.4 percent support, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, closely following Haley at 11.2 percent.
HALEY AND DESANTIS WILL GO HEAD-TO-HEAD tonight during a CNN debate in Des Moines, where each candidate will battle to be the alternative to Trump. The former president will skip the GOP debate and will instead spend the 9 p.m. ET hour on Fox News’s town hall — his first live interview with the network in two years.
The Hill: Protesters interrupted DeSantis during a Tuesday town hall in Iowa hosted by Fox.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY
- Severe weather and wind shear Tuesday night diverted Vice President Harris’s Air Force 2 plane from Atlanta to Dulles International Airport in Virginia rather than to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Early today, tens of millions of people in the Mid-Atlantic region face flood warnings, watches or advisories, according to the National Weather Service, and more than half a million households in about a dozen states are without power.
- Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun fought back tears Tuesday while speaking with employees about the midair fuselage blowout on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9. He said the company acknowledges “our mistake.”
- Amalija Knavs, 78, mother of former first lady Melania Trump, died Tuesday.
Special Notes:
After four days of unexplained secrecy and public controversy about transparency and national security, the world learned Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, 70, was treated for prostate cancer Dec. 22 and subsequently readmitted Jan. 1 with an infection and complications, according to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the Pentagon (The Hill and NBC News). Austin was placed under general anesthesia for surgery early last month and “recovered uneventfully” until experiencing pain that put him back in the hospital for treatment, where he remains.
The cancer “was detected early and his prognosis is excellent,” according to a statement from Walter Reed clinicians and defense officials. The secrecy over Austin’s condition prompted calls in Congress and elsewhere for his firing, which have been rejected by President Biden, who spoke with Austin by phone Saturday but only learned about the secretary’s prostate cancer Tuesday. About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Risk of the disease rises in older males and among African American men, according to the American Cancer Society.
Axios: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, responding to the Pentagon’s decision not to immediately inform the White House, lawmakers and defense officials about Austin’s absence, plans a review of Cabinet protocols dealing with the delegation of authority and notifications at the top of the executive branch.
