Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00 Now, U.S. Appeals Court unanimously rejected a claim from former President Donald Trump
00:05 that he is immune from prosecution.
00:07 The move essentially means he can now face trial on charges he plotted to overturn the
00:11 results of the 2020 election.
00:13 All eyes will now be on the Supreme Court, who could determine if former President Trump
00:18 stands trial in Washington ahead of the elections in November.
00:21 We can now bring in our international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert.
00:24 Doug?
00:25 Hello, Delano.
00:26 The court unanimously made this decision.
00:28 What did they say exactly?
00:29 Well, first of all, the decision itself, no matter of the fact that Trump's lawyers plan
00:34 to appeal, no matter how they try to spin this decision, it will severely, potentially
00:41 severely hamstring Donald Trump's central strategy, which is to delay any trial facing
00:49 having to get to court on any trial, delay it, delay it, and delay it, potentially until
00:53 beyond the goal posts in November when he'd be elected.
00:56 And presumably when he has control of the Justice Department, he would be able to essentially
01:00 order the Justice Department to drop all cases against him and perhaps even pardon himself.
01:04 So that's the goal.
01:05 Get these cases, delay the legal jeopardy as long as possible, get it past the election.
01:10 That said, this ruling by a three-judge panel, so a smaller panel of the broader circuit
01:14 court of appeals in Washington, it issued a sweeping, categorical, unprecedented in
01:21 a sense, rejection of every single plank in the argument put forth by Trump's legal team
01:28 that allowing a former president to be criminally charged would essentially chill the actions
01:36 of future presidents.
01:37 They said essentially hogwash to that.
01:41 They also rejected the argument that because he was acquitted after his impeachment by
01:47 the Senate that he should not be liable for criminally, being held criminally accountable
01:53 as a former president afterwards.
01:55 And they invoked other past presidents.
01:56 They invoked Gerald Ford who essentially pardons Richard Nixon who resigned under duress.
02:02 Also Bill Clinton was, he was under investigation by an independent prosecutor and he basically
02:07 brokered a deal.
02:08 He paid a fine and he agreed to a temporary suspension of his law license.
02:12 They basically said that all the arguments were hogwash.
02:15 I just want to bring up very quickly though because this is the central plank.
02:19 They basically said that Donald Trump's stance, his argument would collapse the systems of
02:24 separated powers by placing the president beyond the reach of all three branches of
02:28 the US government.
02:29 And you could see what they said, that we cannot accept, let's bring that up full screen,
02:33 it is on full screen.
02:34 We cannot accept former President Trump's claim that a president has unbounded, unbounded
02:38 authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power,
02:43 nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the executive, that is the president,
02:48 has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and have their
02:52 votes count.
02:53 What they're referring to in that last part, Delano, is the fact that Trump, one of the
02:57 charges was that he obstructed the right to vote by trying to stop the certification
03:02 and the counting of votes and ordering basically his followers to march to the Capitol as they
03:06 see it.
03:07 Doug, very, very briefly, what comes next?
03:10 What comes next is they plan to appeal when and where isn't clear at the moment.
03:14 Most likely the Supreme Court, this Court of Appeals gave them a very short deadline
03:18 to do that by next Monday.
03:19 The Supreme Court could decline the case.
03:22 If it does that, with its 6-3 conservative majority, if it does that, it would go right
03:26 back to the Federal District Court.
03:28 A new trial date would be set because the March 4th date had been postponed.
03:31 It was going to start in about a month.
03:34 It would be set maybe for early May, we don't know.
03:36 If the Supreme Court decides to take the case, opens up a whole other jumble of questions.
03:41 It would have to schedule arguments.
03:42 It would have to eventually issue a decision.
03:45 That could potentially delay, delay, delay and play into Trump's strategy.
03:48 In that case, we might not see a trial until after the election, potentially.
03:52 If we do at all.