Napolitano Says Quick Decision Likely in Trump Immunity Case, According to Newsmax

A decision will come quickly on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in connection with the events of Jan. 6 at the Capitol, as former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax Tuesday. And the argument will play out around the question of whether Trump’s actions that day were as president or on his own.

“It depends on what he was doing on Jan. 6,” Napolitano told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “Was that in order to execute his office as president of the United States, or was it to interfere with the passage of power from himself to Joe Biden?”

And if Trump was “exercising the normal faculties of the president of the United States, he can’t be prosecuted,” said Napolitano. 

Trump’s attorneys filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Saturday asserting that he was acting within his role as president when he pressed claims about “alleged fraud and irregularity” in the 2020 election. 

The brief was filed after the U.S. Supreme Court Friday rejected a request from special counsel Jack Smith to fast-track the immunity question decision, to keep the case moving along as its March 4 trial date approaches. 

Napolitano said Tuesday that he does not expect Trump to attend the oral arguments being presented in the D.C. court on Jan. 9, and that “you can expect an opinion about a week or two” after the hearing. 

Meanwhile, Trump posted a fiery Christmas Day message, including strong criticism of Smith, and Napolitano said that is allowed, particularly after an appeals court ruled against an initial gag order that prohibited him from criticizing the special counsel. 

“The defendant has the right to say whatever he wants, whether he’s running for president or not,” said Napolitano. “Most defendants don’t criticize the people prosecuting them, but Donald Trump has the right to do it. The appellate court said, Go ahead, fire away. So the appellate court narrowed the gag order and Donald Trump is taking advantage of that, as he has every right to do in terms of the immunity.”

And Trump’s holiday greeting was “typical” of him, said Napolitano. 

“He is articulating the way a lot of people feel about the deficiencies in America today, many of which are caused by the Biden administration,” he said. “Then he says ‘rot in hell,’ which is his way of saying ‘I’m sick and tired of this.'”

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