Trump says he has “total immunity” over Jan 6. and did “nothing wrong”

Donald Trump has once again denied any wrongdoing in relation to the January 6 attack on the Capitol while also suggesting he would have “total immunity” from criminal prosecution regardless.

In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump dismissed the recent findings of the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol while defending his actions prior to the riot.

The panel recommended that the Department of Justice charge the former president with offenses including inciting or assisting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States.

The panel also released its 845-page report on the January 6 attack that accused Trump of being the leading figure in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 election results and being the “central cause” of the insurrection at the Capitol.

While the criminal referral is mostly symbolic, the move, as well as the evidence presented by the panel, puts pressure on the Department of Justice to take the historic step and make Trump the first former U.S. president to be charged with a crime.

Writing on social media, Trump said that his actions on January 6, which included telling his supporters to “fight like hell” in a speech at the Ellipse and then allegedly refusing to take steps to stop the violence for hours, are immune from prosecution because he was president at the time.

“Very interesting, because until recently the political Hacks and Thugs of the highly partisan January 6th Unselect Committee were seldom talking about your favorite President, me, as it related to the PROTEST on Election Fraud,” Trump wrote.

“NUMBER ONE, as President, I have total Immunity. Number two, I did nothing wrong. Then the Committee members, mostly the same sleaze that pushed the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, started saying that ‘Trump’ did it. Even Shifty [Rep. Adam] Schiff got into the act again. SAD!!!”

Trump has previously attempted to use the argument that he has absolute immunity as part of an attempt to dismiss a number of civil lawsuits filed against him in relation to his actions during his presidency.

In November, Washington District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that Trump could not cite the presidential immunity defense in response to a lawsuit brought forward by the NAACP and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

The suit alleged that Trump had violated civil rights by attempting to disenfranchise voters through targeted harassment, intimidation and efforts to prevent the complete counting and certification of ballots after the 2020 election.

“If former President Trump disrupted the certification of the electoral vote count, as plaintiffs allege here, such actions would not constitute executive action in defense of the Constitution,” Sullivan wrote in his ruling. “For these reasons, the court concludes that former President Trump is not immune from monetary damages in this suit.”

While criminal investigations have different legal standards than civil lawsuits, Rachel Fiset, co-founder and managing partner of Zweiback, Fiset & Zalduendo law firm, previously told Newsweek that Sullivan’s ruling on Trump’s presidential immunity defense could also be used elsewhere.

“Trump is continually attempting to hide behind the immunity offered to presidents acting in their official duties as president. In Trump’s very unusual presidency, however, he attempted acts that arguably exceed the boundaries of his official duties,” Fiset told Newsweek.

“For instance, seeking to overturn an election illegally and disenfranchise voters for his own gain can be found to go beyond official duties and cross into acts that are ‘purely political’ and therefore subject to liability.”

If Trump were to be charged over January 6, it could put an end to his bid to win the 2024 election.

Elsewhere on Truth Social, Trump attacked Olivia Nuzzi, a writer for New York Magazine who recently profiled the former president. In the article, Nuzzi quoted an unnamed Trump adviser who said that “the magic is gone.”

The adviser added: “It’s not there. In this business, you can have it and have it so hot and it can go overnight and it’s gone and you can’t get it back. I think we’re just seeing it’s gone. The magic is gone.”

Writing on Truth Social on Monday, Trump dismissed the reports as “fake news” while also attacking Nuzzi’s physical appearance.

“The Fake & Corrupt News is only getting worse! As an example, I agreed to do a short telephone interview for a once very good, but now on its ‘last leg’ and failing, New York Magazine,” Trump wrote.

“The reporter was a shaky & unattractive wack job, known as ‘tough’ but dumb as a rock, who actually wrote a decent story about me a long time ago. Her name, Olivia Nuzzi. Anyway, the story was Fake News, her ‘anonymous sources’ don’t exist (true with many writers), and I’m happily fighting hard for our GREAT USA!”

Newsweek has contacted Trump’s office for comment.