Trump asks judge to throw out Jan. 6 charges with presidential immunity defense

Former President Trump on Wednesday asked a judge to dismiss the whole of the government’s election interference case against him, arguing all his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are protected by presidential immunity. 

“The prosecution does not, and cannot, argue that President Trump’s efforts to ensure election integrity, and to advocate for the same, were outside the scope of his duties. Instead, the prosecution falsely claims that President Trump’s motives were impure — that he purportedly ‘knew’ that the widespread reports of fraud and election irregularities were untrue but sought to address them anyway,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the motion. 

“But as the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and hundreds of years of history and tradition all make clear, the President’s motivations are not for the prosecution or this Court to decide. Rather, where, as here, the President’s actions are within the ambit of his office, he is absolutely immune from prosecution.”

The 52-page motion argues Trump’s status at the time as president protects even duties on the “outer perimeter” of the role as an executive.

That includes his communications with lawmakers and officials at the Department of Justice as he pressured them to launch an investigation into his baseless claims of election fraud. 

Those communications, his attorneys wrote, “lie at the heart of his constitutional duties.”

The motion is a vigorous defense of Trump’s actions leading up to the riot, actions the Justice Department has argued stripped citizens of the right to have their vote counted and which were built on a mountain of fraudulent claims. 

DEVELOPING.