From the New York Times, this is the Daily.

I'm Natalie Kitroeth.

Donald Trump has consistently argued that as former president he's immune

from being charged with a crime for what he did in office. Today my colleague

Adam Liptack on what happened when his lawyers made that case in

federal court, whether the extraordinary claim has any chance of being accepted

and why Trump may win something valuable either way. It's Wednesday, January 10th.

It's Wednesday, January 10th. Adam, hi, welcome back to the show.

So, Trump and his lawyers appeared in a federal appeals court Tuesday to make their case that as a former president Trump is immune from criminal prosecution.

Basically, that the Justice Department cannot charge him for a criminal act, which if Trump wins

seems like it would make a lot of his legal troubles go away. Is that right?

Yeah, it's an extraordinary ask. He says he has absolute immunity

from criminal prosecution for anything resembling

an official act while he was president

even after he's no longer president.

Adam, can you take us back, just explain how we got here?

Well, the criminal case against former President Trump, I say the criminal case, the criminal case, the criminal case, the criminal case we care about today because it's one of four, is a federal indictment brought by Special counsel Jack Smith arising from Trump's efforts to

overturn the 2020 election. So that charges filed in federal district court in Washington.

And among Trump's responses is to file a motion,

saying, you can't prosecute me because I have immunity from criminal prosecution for my official

acts when I was president, and the trial judge considers that motion and rules against Donald Trump says we have

presidents not kings and you're responsible for criminal conduct if the

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