Trump warns 'there will be bedlam' if Jan 6 prosecution goes ahead
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Donald Trump has warned there will be “bedlam” if the justice department is allowed to prosecute him on election interference claims, accusing Joe Biden of attempting to push him off the ballot.
It comes as the former president’s legal team argued he was exempt from the four criminal charges alleging he tried to overturn the result of the 2020 election because he is entitled to presidential immunity.
Claiming Mr Biden was concerned by his sliding poll numbers ahead of November’s election, Mr Trump said: “I think they feel this is the way they’re going to try and win and that’s not the way it goes. There will be bedlam in the country... it’s the opening of a Pandora’s Box.
“When they talk about threat to democracy, that’s your real threat to democracy. And I feel that as president you need to have immunity.”
He added: “I did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong. I’m working for the country and I worked very hard on voter fraud because we have to have free elections.”
Earlier in the day, Mr Trump’s lawyers argued that the “floodgates” will open to partisan charges being brought against former presidents if the prosecution is allowed to go ahead.
06:08 PM GMT
That's all for now
Thanks for following along with our coverage of the Donald Trump’s latest court case, where his legal team argued he is shielded from prosecution by presidential immunity. This live blog is now closed.
05:57 PM GMT
Pictured: Trump appears in courtroom in presidential immunity case
05:21 PM GMT
Trump: Biden could be prosecuted over Afghanistan withdrawal
Presidents cannot do their job without immunity from prosecution, Donald Trump has said, as he suggested Joe Biden could be charged over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The former president, who is facing four charges of election interference, told reporters: “The lowest moment I think in the history of our country was Afghanistan, the way we withdrew... with shame, we surrendered, people killed, 13 great soldiers killed.
“He could be prosecuted for that. So you can’t have a president without immunity, as a president you have to be able to do youe job.”
05:07 PM GMT
Pictured: 'I did nothing wrong', insists Trump
05:05 PM GMT
Trump: 'It's the opening of Pandora's Box'
Donald Trump has warned there will be “bedlam” if criminal charges are brought against him, claiming US President Joe Biden is attempting to push him off the ballot before the presidential election in November.
Speaking after his lawyers argued he had presidential immunity on four counts of election interference, Mr Trump said: “I think they feel this is the way they’re going to try and win and that’s not the way it goes. There will be bedlam in the country... it’s the opening of a Pandora’s Box.
“When they talk about threat to democracy, that’s your real threat to democracy. And I feel that as president you need to have immunity.”
He added: “I did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong. I’m working for the country and I worked very hard on voter fraud because we have to have free elections.”
04:34 PM GMT
Trump due to make statement
Donald Trump is expected to make a statement at a local hotel following the legal arguments in today’s court case, US media reports.
04:26 PM GMT
Listen back to the arguments from Donald Trump's immunity case
04:14 PM GMT
'For Trump, today is about theatre'
Donald Trump has made a point of leaving the campaign trail in Iowa, where the Republican primary campaign is entering its final days, to appear today in Washington, writes US Editor Tony Diver.
Despite his claims in an email to supporters last night that he was being “forced” to leave the campaign trail, the former president’s appearance is entirely voluntary.
For Mr Trump, today is not about the facts of the Washington case, which accuses him of defrauding the United States in the days after the 2020 election. It is about making the point to voters that the prosecution against him is political – and therefore that Joe Biden’s presidency is corrupt.
We can expect a lot more of these claims as the campaign progresses – and we have already seen Mr Trump falsely accuse Mr Biden of rigging the 2024 vote by inviting illegal migrants into the US to vote for him. This sort of rhetoric will become a fixture as the campaign heats up later this year.
03:57 PM GMT
Legal arguments end
The legal arguments between Donald Trump and justice department lawyers have now concluded.
03:51 PM GMT
Prosecuting Trump 'will launch cycles of recrimination'
D. John Sauer hits back at James Pearce’s arguments, arguing that a system where a president needs to be impeached before prosecution “is the one we’ve lived under for the last 235 years”.
He continues: “That’s not a frightening future, that’s our republic. What he’s forecasting is a situation where the floodgates will be opened.
“We are in a situation where we have a prosecution of the chief political opponent who is winning in every poll.. and is being prosecuted by the administration that he is seeking to replace.
“That is the frightening future that is tailor made to launch cycles of recrimination that will shake our republic.”
03:43 PM GMT
Pearce returns to 'Sea Team Six' scenario
James Pearce is picking up a point raised earlier by the judges, arguing it is “frightening” if a president could only be prosecuted for assassinating someone if they were impeached first.
He says: “What kind of world are we living in if.... a president orders a Seal team to assassinate a political rival and resigns, for example, before an impeachment? Not a criminal act.
“A president sells a pardon, resigns or is not impeached? Not a crime.
“I think that is an extraordinarily frightening future... I think that should weigh extraordinarily heavily in the court’s consideration.”
03:33 PM GMT
Pictured: 'We elect presidents, not kings'
03:31 PM GMT
Pearce: Prosecuting Trump will not open 'floodgates' to presidential charges
James Pearce cites Richard Nixon and the Iran-Contra affair as he argues there is a longstanding assumption that presidents are subject to criminal prosecution.
He downplays claims that prosecuting Donald Trump will provoke a “sea change of vindictive tit-for-tat prosecutions”, and says the case “reflects the fundamentally unprecedented nature of the criminal charges here”.
“Never before have there been allegations that a sitting president has with private individuals and using the levers of power to subvert the democratic republic and the electoral system,” he adds.
03:25 PM GMT
'Doing justice means getting the law right'
James Pearce has said it will not seek to get the case dismissed because prosecutors care about “doing justice”.
He continues: “Doing justice means getting the law right and it’s our view that even if a dismissal on jurisdiction might move this case faster... we just don’t think that’s the right analysis here.”
03:18 PM GMT
'A former president is not above the law'
James Pearce, representing the legal counsel, argues that the the court case is not the place to experiment with a “novel form of criminal immunity”.
He tells the three judges: “Never in our nation’s history, until this case has a president claimed an immunity for criminal prosecution extends beyond his time in office.
“The president has a unique constitutional role but he is not above the law... a former president enjoys no immunity from criminal prosecution.”
03:12 PM GMT
Trump team does not pursue questions over Smith's appointment
Donald Trump’s legal team are not raising questions on whether special prosecutor Jack Smith was “improperly appointed”, despite claims by the former president.
D. John Sauer says: “It’s a very persuasive brief but I can see we have not raised it in this case. I think it raises very powerful questions but we haven’t raised it in this case at this time.”
Mr Trump wrote on social media last month: “Smith is a Crooked Prosecutor who shouldn’t even be allowed to be in the position he is in – It is Prosecutorial Misconduct.”
02:57 PM GMT
Trump lawyers: Allowing prosecution would 'open a Pandora's Box'
Donald Trump’s lawyers are arguing that allowing the prosecution of the former president would “open a Pandora’s Box from which the nation may never recover”.
D. John Sauer, acting for Mr Trump, asks: “Could George W Bush be prosecuted for obstruction of an official proceeding for allegedly giving false information to Congress to induce the nation to go to war in Iraq under false pretences?
“Could President Obama be potentially charged for murder for allegedly authorizing drone strikes targeting US citizens located abroad?”
Judge Florence Pan asks if a president is immune from prosecution if they “order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival.” Trump’s team say he would have to be impeached first.
02:33 PM GMT
Trump immunity case begins
The court is now sitting, and will shortly hear arguments about whether Donald Trump is shielded from election subversion charges by presidential immunity.
02:27 PM GMT
Pictured: Donald Trump's motorcade arrives at D.C. courthouse
02:23 PM GMT
The tough courtroom competitor who wants Trump in jail: Who is Jack Smith?
When Alexi Schacht was asked to defend Manzoor Qadar, who was accused of murdering his niece’s husband as part of an honour killing, he thought it would be a doddle.
The prosecution was relying on “thin” circumstantial evidence to prove his client had travelled from Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1996 to shoot Shaukat Parvez dead in Queens in exchange for a £46,000 bounty.
So confident was Mr Schacht that the case would fall apart, he branded it at the time as “one of the weakest prosecutions I’ve ever seen”.
But the one thing the lawyer hadn’t factored into the trial at Brooklyn federal court was his opponent: Jack Smith.
Read the full profile from US Correspondent Susie Coen here.
02:09 PM GMT
The judge who could send Donald Trump to jail: Who is Tanya Chutkan?
The judge expected to oversee Donald Trump’s Jan 6 indictment is known for tough sentences on Capitol rioters and was appointed by Barack Obama.
US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan was also the federal judge who previously denied Mr Trump’s attempt to avoid disclosing documents to the House committee investigating the attack, writing in the ruling: “presidents are not kings”.
A former assistant public defender and partner at a top law firm, Ms Chutkan was nominated to the District Court by Mr Obama in December 2013 and appointed in 2014.
Last year an audit found she had consistently taken the hardest line of any judge serving on Washington’s federal trial court when sentencing Jan 6 offenders.
Read the full profile from US Correspondent Susie Coen here.
02:07 PM GMT
Trump bound for D.C. after leaving Virginia golf club
Donald Trump has left his golf club in Sterling, Virginia and is heading for the Washington D.C. courthouse, NBC News reports.
The club is part of a separate case against the billionaire by Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, who claims it is one of a number of properties the Trump Organisation inflated in value to obtain favourable insurance and loan terms. Mr Trump denies the charges.
01:56 PM GMT
What did Tanya Chutkan rule on Trump's immunity claim?
Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that Donald Trump was not entitled to a “lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass” the last time the former president’s lawyers argued he was shielded from prosecution.
She wrote in December: “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.
“Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability.
“Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.”
She added that Mr Trump’s “four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.”
01:42 PM GMT
How Donald Trump could run his election campaign from jail
It is unprecedented for a former US president to be facing federal criminal charges. It is unthinkable that, as a result, Donald J. Trump could spend the rest of his life in prison.
And it is ridiculous that, from behind bars, he could still contest the presidential election in 2024 – and have a chance of winning.
Yet everything about Trump’s political career is unprecedented, unthinkable and ridiculous. The only rule of the Donald is that he breaks all rules.
Read the full story from Freddie Gray here.
01:31 PM GMT
What has Trump said about the case?
Donald Trump insisted on Monday that his time in office means he is shielded from the four criminal counts, adding that he was “looking for voter fraud” rather than subverting the 2020 presidential election.
“Of course I was entitled, as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief, to immunity,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“I wasn’t campaigning, the election was long over. I was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, which is my obligation to do, and otherwise running... our country.
“If I don’t get immunity, then Crooked Joe Biden doesn’t get immunity... Joe would be ripe for indictment By weaponising the DOJ against his political opponent, ME, Joe has opened a giant Pandora’s Box.”
01:23 PM GMT
Pictures: Washington awaits the arrival of Donald Trump
01:20 PM GMT
What other charges does Donald Trump face?
You can read our full breakdown of all the charges – criminal and civil – that have been brought against former US president Donald Trump here.
Today’s case is related to four counts of election subversion that have been brought against Mr Trump, who is arguing that his time as commander-in-chief should shield him from prosecution.
01:16 PM GMT
Welcome to the live blog
Hello and welcome to The Telegraph’s live blog of Donald Trump’s presidential immunity case, where we’ll be guiding you through all the updates from the E. Barret Prettyman courthouse.
