During a hearing on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump’s legal team argued that he was protected by presidential immunity after the 2020 election, even saying it protected a hypothetical assassination of political rivals.
Trump attorney John Sauer was asked if a president who ordered SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent would be an action safe from prosecution because of presidential immunity.
Sauer answered with a “qualified yes,” saying that as long as certain things happened first.
The judge also asked Sauer about the selling of presidential pardons, which he again said could be safe under the immunity.
The hearing was meant to review a motion from Trump’s team to toss out his election interference charges. While speaking on the president’s behalf, Sauer argued that presidents are only able to be criminally prosecuted if they have already been tried and convicted by the Senate.
“He would have to be impeached and convicted,” Sauer said.
The three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals pushed back against this argument, as Judge Michelle Childs said that a president could resign rather than face impeachment, which, under Sauer’s line of thinking, would protect them from future prosecution.
Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s team also argued against Sauer’s point, as James Pearce said that protections for presidents being criminally prosecuted should be weakened.
“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? I think that is an extraordinarily frightening future that should weigh heavily on the court’s decision,” Pearce said.
The appellate court has yet to make its decision on whether or not Trump’s presidential immunity is enough to protect him from Smith’s indictments.