US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has ruled that former President Donald Trump does not have absolute immunity from criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The ruling, delivered on Friday, dismissed Trump’s initial attempts to have the federal indictment in Washington thrown out.
Judge Chutkan, in her ruling, stated that Trump’s four-year term as Commander in Chief did not grant him the “divine right of kings” to evade the criminal accountability that applies to all citizens. This ruling marks a crucial turning point in the ongoing legal proceedings against the former president.
The charges against Trump stem from his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. These efforts culminated in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The indictment describes a plot involving Trump and his allies knowingly spreading false allegations of election fraud, convening fraudulent electors, and attempting to block the certification of the election.
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The indictment also lists six co-conspirators who played central roles in the plot to keep Trump in office. While they were unnamed, the descriptions of five of the six matched those of the Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and Ken Chesebro, as well as the former US Justice Department official Jeff Clark.
This case marks the first time a US president has faced criminal charges for trying to overturn an election. It represents an extraordinary moment in American politics—an abrupt accounting of an attempted coup. The charges include one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.