that claims that voting machines had skewed election results were unsubstantiated.[1] P52 decided to make his statement without informing the defendant in advance.[2] He prepared the statement because he had been watching the defendant repeat claims of election fraud publicly despite direct knowledge, from P52 and others, that they were false, and P52 was growing more and more frustrated by the defendant's actions.[3] On November 29, P52 saw the defendant appear on the Maria Bartiromo Show and claim, among other false things, that the Justice Department was "missing in action" and had ignored evidence of fraud.[4] P52 decided it was time to speak publicly in contravention of the defendant's false claims, set up a lunch with a reporter for the Associated Press, and made his statement—all without informing or seeking permission from the defendant. The same day, on behalf of the Campaign, CC1 and P12 issued a statement attacking P52 for his comments.[5] In the days that followed, P1 acknowledged and criticized P52 statement during his podcast, asking rhetorically "is P52 reading the same things we're reading?" and prompting guest CC6 to comment that "the DOJ has not been following up on these leads as far as we know right now. That statement seemed to be very premature. . . .[T]here's no way one can look at this election in these states and say that it was done properly."[6]
P52 statement is not an official act by the defendant. Trump treats only the defendant's own acts as potentially immune, see, e.g., 144 S. Ct. at 2338, consistent with the "justifying purposes of the immunity"—"to ensure that the President can undertake his constitutionally
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