Haley blasts ‘ridiculous’ claim Trump has presidential immunity to kill rivals

Former president appeared at a federal appeals court in election subversion case

Nikki Haley mocked Donald Trump’s presidential immunity legal defence as ‘ridiculous’ during the latest Republican debate in Iowa.

The 2024 hopeful was asked during a debate with Ron DeSantis by CNN host Jake Tapper if she agreed with Mr Trump that a president should have complete immunity, after he appeared at a federal appeals court earlier this week.

Lawyers for Mr Trump told a panel of judges that a president should have that immunity even if they ordered the assassination of a political rival unless they were impeached and convicted in the US Senate.

“No, that’s ridiculous. That’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Ms Haley. “You can’t go and kill a political rival and then claim, you know, immunity from a president. I think we have to start doing things that are right.”

Mr Trump’s former UN Ambassador then went on to describe the characteristics of a good leader.

“What a leader does is they bring out the best in people and get them to see the way forward. That’s what we need in our country,” Ms Haley said. “We don’t need this chaos anymore.”

Mr Trump has asked the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s rejection of immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election subversion case.

Mr Trump, who is the first and only former or sitting president to be criminally charged, faces a total of 91 felony counts across his four criminal indictments by state and federal prosecutors.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged him with four criminal counts over his efforts to stay in power after the 2020 election. These include a conspiracy to violate civil rights, a conspiracy to defraud the government, the corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding and a conspiracy to carry out such obstruction.

Mr Trump also faces 40 federal felony charges with Mr Smith accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving the White House. That case is expected to go to trial in May 2024.

In Fulton County, Georgia, Mr Trump and 18 associates have been charged with trying to subvert the 2020 election results in the state in a sprawling Rico case. Mr Trump faces 13 felony charges.

Three defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, have entered guilty pleas in return for helping prosecutors. No trial date has yet been set for the remaining 16 defendants.

Mr Trump has also been accused in New York City of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election. Mr Trump was indicted in March and is expected to go to trial on 25 March 2024.

He has pleaded not guilty to every charge in each case and has accused prosecutors of “election interference” and an attempt to derail his 2024 run for a second term in the Oval Office.