Trump tells Supreme Court pros­e­cut­ing him is ‘de fac­to black­mail’ for future pres­i­dents

Don­ald Trump‘s attor­neys warned in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Tues­day that pros­e­cut­ing the for­mer pres­i­dent for actions he took while he was in office would be used as “de fac­to black­mail” against future pres­i­dents.
The argu­ment came as part of the broad­er case Trump’s attor­neys pre­sent­ed to the Supreme Court that spe­cial coun­sel Jack Smith‘s elec­tion inter­fer­ence case against the for­mer pres­i­dent should be dis­missed on pres­i­den­tial immu­ni­ty grounds.
“The Pres­i­dent can­not func­tion, and the Pres­i­den­cy itself can­not retain its vital inde­pen­dence, if the Pres­i­dent faces crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion for offi­cial acts once he leaves office,” Trump’s attor­neys wrote.
The Supreme Court is weigh­ing whether the Con­sti­tu­tion has a built-in immu­ni­ty pro­vi­sion that pro­tects Trump from being crim …