Appeals court rejects Trump claim of immunity from prosecution
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00:00 Federal Court, Appeals Court has ruled that Donald Trump is not immune from
00:06 prosecution and therefore can face trial on charges that he plotted to overturn
00:11 the results of that 2020 election. Well Trump had claimed in the landmark case
00:17 that he was immune from criminal charges for acts he said fell within his duties
00:23 as president. Well we can now cross to our correspondent in Washington, Fraser
00:29 Jackson. Fraser, there are at least six cases ongoing, some criminal, some civil.
00:38 What is this ruling about? Is this a big setback for Trump then? Well this was a
00:45 forcefully written 57 page ruling by the three judge courts here in Washington DC
00:52 which ruled that Trump has no presidential immunity in the January 6
00:56 case which is the federal case brought by Jack Smith on after the insurrection
01:00 on the capsule on January 6, 2021. The ruling says that Trump's immunity claim
01:05 quote "is unsupported by precedent, history or the text and structure of the
01:10 Constitution." The ruling then continues "former President Trump's alleged efforts
01:14 to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election were if proven an
01:19 unprecedented assault on the structure of our government. He allegedly injected
01:23 himself into a process in which the president has no role, the counting and
01:28 certifying of the Electoral College votes, thereby undermining
01:30 constitutionally established procedures and the will of Congress." Now there are
01:34 effectively three findings in this ruling. One is that the judges
01:39 outwardly rejected the notion of blanket immunity for the president. The second
01:43 says that even if there were some modicum of immunity that Trump's alleged
01:47 behavior was out of bounds for what would even be covered by that. And then
01:51 thirdly the argument says that the was put forward by the Trump team that said
01:57 that a president could only be found guilty of not having immunity would be
02:02 if they'd been impeached by the Senate. That was outwardly rejected. It was on
02:05 that third point that we saw some of the most memorable moments of the appeals
02:09 process which was when the court asked Trump's lawyer whether if a president
02:13 had used SEAL Team 6 to assassinate his political rival whether that would be
02:17 covered by immunity to which Donald Trump's team replied if he'd been
02:22 impeached by the Senate. So this expedited basis still took a month and
02:26 it really was a ruling that most people were expecting and the reason that we
02:31 think it took so long is because this court was really crossing its T's and
02:35 dotting its I's because the next step really is the Supreme Court and they're
02:39 hoping that maybe they could just rubber stamp this decision so the Supreme
02:42 Court might not have to get indicted, sorry involved. Well that's what I was
02:47 going to ask you then. Is that the end of this or clearly from what you're
02:53 saying it might not be. Does he go to the Supreme Court next? Is he just
02:57 trying to delay and delay this thing until after the presidential elections?
03:03 Well delay has definitely been Donald Trump's legal strategy to try to get
03:07 these legal processes pushed back beyond the presidential election in the
03:12 hopes that he wins and that could therefore make these cases disappear
03:16 that is what most analysts here in the United States are saying. Now Donald
03:21 Trump's team has said that they will now appeal this decision which means that it
03:24 will head to the Supreme Court but it's up to the Supreme Court whether they
03:27 want to hear this case at all. CNN is reporting that their sources are saying
03:32 to them that Donald Trump's team are not confident that the Supreme Court would
03:37 even take this case up because of a weak argument that has been put forward by
03:41 Trump's legal team. Now Donald Trump's legal team is already in the Supreme
03:45 Court this Thursday where they'll be hearing whether Donald Trump's name can
03:49 be appear on the ballots in Colorado which is a widely watched ruling which
03:53 is expected to go in Trump's favor and so whether the Supreme Court could even
03:58 hear this one remains to be seen. They could decide not to hear it
04:03 and therefore and not have to get involved in political processes
04:07 here in the United States. Now this ruling gave the Supreme Court six days
04:11 to decide whether if they're going to get involved otherwise it will go back
04:14 down to the trial court and that trial has only just been postponed. The judge
04:19 Tanya Shukin had originally scheduled this trial for March 4th but that has
04:23 been vacated just days ago so now with this ruling we'll see whether that trial
04:28 gets back on track or whether it's going to be pushed to some more time more
04:32 around May or June which will of course be just after Donald Trump's processes
04:36 in New York start. Okay Fraser thanks very much we will be hearing from you no
04:42 doubt on many occasions over this stuff and more right up until those elections.
04:48 Fraser Jackson there speaking to us from Washington.