A court ruling against Donald Trump on Friday is a "disaster for his criminal trial," according to Mary Trump, his estranged niece.
Three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said the former president can be sued over the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot, when hundreds of his supporters stormed Congress in a bid to stop Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory being certified. Trump's legal team said that he had presidential immunity from civil lawsuits over the event. However, this was rejected in an opinion written by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, who said the then-White House incumbent "does not spend every minute of every day exercising official responsibilities." The opinion added: "And when he acts outside the functions of his office, he does not continue to enjoy immunity... When he acts in an unofficial, private capacity, he is subject to civil suits like any private citizen." As a result of the judges' ruling, three civil lawsuits against Trump, brought by Capitol Hill police officers and Democratic members of Congress, can now move ahead, with the potential for more to follow. Newsweek has approached Donald Trump for comment via the press inquiry form on his official website. The ruling was condemned by Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's reelection campaign, who described it to CNN as "limited, narrow and procedural." Cheung added: "The facts fully show that on January 6 President Trump was acting on behalf of the American people, carrying out his duties as President of the United States."
Mary Trump expressed a very different view on her Substack blog, where she wrote: "While the media has focused on the Court's decision itself, this may also spell trouble for Donald's CRIMINAL case too." Mary Trump shared the opinion of legal expert Joe Gallina, who argued the ruling could also undermine Trump's claim to have presidential immunity in any of his four criminal cases. The former president denies any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said that the cases are part of a political witch hunt to derail his campaign for the White House, of which he remains the GOP frontrunner. Gallina said: "While federal civil decisions typically do not have a direct binding effect on federal criminal cases, the set of circumstances both courts are weighing are the same. Over the years, the courts have applied vast immunity to presidents, but here we have a particularly historic decision with weight that sets the stage for the upcoming decision on his immunity in his criminal case." Donald Trump walks at the game between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Clemson Tigers at Williams-Brice Stadium on November 25, 2023 in Columbia, South Carolina. On Friday, a DC court ruled Trump doesn't have immunity from civil cases brought over the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot.JACOB KUPFERMAN/GETTYSign up for Newsweek’s daily headlines Also on Friday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that Trump does not have immunity from the criminal charges he is facing related to claims he broke the law when trying to reverse the 2020 election outcome. Trump has pled not guilty to four counts in the case including conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiracy against rights. He has also pled not guilty to a range of charges in three separate cases, deriving from claims he facilitated the payment of hush money to a pornographic actress, mishandled classified documents, and illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia specifically, all of which he denies. Chutkan rejected the notion that Trump enjoys presidential immunity in the case she is overseeing, saying: "The Constitution's text, structure, and history do not support that contention. "No court, or any other branch of government, has ever accepted it. And this court will not so hold," Chutkan added. "Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass." Chutkan also said Trump doesn't have immunity due to the First Amendment, adding it is well established that this "does not protect speech that is used as an instrument of a crime."
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