'Audacious': Expert stunned by Trump's latest SCOTUS argument for presidential immunity

Former President Donald Trump's latest filing in the presidential immunity case that will be heard before the Supreme Court next week has shocked one legal expert for its "audacious" claims.

Trump's attorneys Monday filed a 33-page response to special counsel Jack Smith's argument that the former president is not protected from prosecution by blanket immunity and therefore can be tried on election interference charges in Washington D.C. federal court.

In this new filing, Trump's attorneys build their case on the experiences of two other former presidents: Richard Nixon and the man who pardoned him, Gerald Ford.

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"President Ford stated that 'years will have to pass before Richard Nixon could hope to obtain a fair trial by jury in any jurisdiction of the United States,'" Trumps lawyers write. "Thus, Ford made the same judgment as the Framers...that the prosecution of a former President should not, and could not fairly, proceed in Article III courts."

This argument stunned Politico's senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein, who described the argument, that Ford's pardon supported Trump's immunity case, as an "audacious claim."

Gerstein's analysis of Trump's claim frustrated several of his readers who argued there was a gaping hole in his case.

As X user @RationalLeft replied, "Um... if Nixon had been immune from prosecution, why would he have needed a pardon?"

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NBC senior correspondent Garrett Haake also noted Trump's lawyers make the case that a president can only be held accountable is via impeachment or conviction during his term, an argument that hinges on a theory hotly contested by Smith.

"Their arguments all hinge on the idea that the crimes Mr. Trump is charged with all constituted official acts he took as President," wrote Haake, "which Special Counsel's earlier filing disputed at great lengths, and will clearly be focus of SCOTUS hearing next week."

The Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments on April 25 on the claim that has stalled Trump's election interference case for months and raised concerns the president was receiving special treatment from the nation's highest court.

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