Washington: Former US President Donald Trump has lost his effort to avoid legal litigation over his part in instigating his followers to storm the Capitol on january 6, 2021. On Friday, a US appeals court rejected his assertion that he is immune from such claims because he was president at the time.
The court found that trump was acting “in his personal capacity as a presidential candidate” when he ordered his followers to march to the Capitol and prevent his 2020 election defeat from being certified. The court also stated that US presidents are immune from legal claims solely for official conduct, not political ones. One of the cases against trump was brought under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, a legislation enacted after the Civil war to protect federal officials from white supremacist violence and intimidation.
The court’s opinion, written by obama appointee Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and joined by trump appointee Judge Gregory Katsas and Clinton appointee Judge Judith Rogers, stated, “When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act.” While Presidents frequently exercise official obligations when speaking on public issues, this is not always the case.”
The court also stated that the former President might still attempt to demonstrate that he was acting in his official role as a defence at the lower court where the cases would be heard. “When these cases move forward in the district court, he must be afforded the opportunity to develop his own facts on the immunity question if he desires to show that he took the actions alleged in the complaints in his official capacity as President rather than in his unofficial capacity as a candidate,” the judge wrote.
