U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan denied former President Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment against him on the grounds that he was protected under “presidential immunity.”
Chutkan determined that Trump’s four-year stint in the White House did not give him a lifelong “get out of jail free” pass and that no president is immune from investigations or convictions on crimes committed while in office.
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“The defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens,” Chutkan ruled in a 48-page opinion on Friday.
Trump argued that all of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were protected by presidential immunity back in October.
The former president also tried to use the Senate’s acquittal of him after the Jan. 6 riot as a reason for dismissing the federal charges, but Chutkan rejected the assertion on Friday.
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“But neither traditional double jeopardy principles nor the Impeachment Judgment Clause provide that a prosecution following impeachment acquittal violates double jeopardy,” Chutkan wrote.
Friday’s ruling will most likely be appealed and could eventually reach the Supreme Court. However, it is not clear whether the appeal will go to the Supreme Court before the 2024 presidential election.
