united-states constitutional-law official-immunity
Does becoming a Presidential Candidate Confer any immunity?
<p>Donald Trump announced that he will run for president in 2024.</p>
<p>Does becoming a Presidential Candidate Confer any immunity from litigation?</p>

<p>A Presidential candidate has no legal immunity for litigation or prosecution different from that of any other political candidate.</p>
<p>The First Amendment provides significant protections for expressive conduct of a candidate for political office.</p>
<p>Presidential candidates do have a few special privileges, most notably, secret  service protection and at a late stage, access to certain intelligence briefings not available to the general public.</p>
<p>Judges and prosecutors often seek to avoid the appearance of impropriety interfering with a Presidential election campaign and this may influence, for example, the scheduling of proceeding against a candidate. But there is no actual immunity from either criminal or civil liability for a Presidential candidate that is different from anyone else.</p>

<p>The Department of Justice and various prosecutors usually refrain from actions that would <strong>give the appearance</strong> of interfering with the electoral process. Part of that is the <em>unofficial</em> 60-day rule, which protects significant political figures from <em>some</em> action in the days before an election.</p>
<p>Having declared himself a candidate, ex-President Trump will probably claim that any and all actions against him are politicially motivated. This might slow some legal actions, as the DOJ makes sure that only &quot;bulletproof&quot; cases go forward.</p>
