Trump warns of 'Pandora's box' of perpetual presidential prosecutions if charges against him stand

Former President Donald Trump has long vowed to prosecute President Joe Biden if Trump wins November's election and the two trade places. He upped the stakes dramatically Tuesday, contending that if criminal charges against him aren't dropped, any current and future ex-presidents also could be prosecuted.

“I feel that as a president, you have to have immunity, very simple,” Trump said after a court hearing where a panel of three federal judges seemed deeply skeptical of his attorneys' arguments that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official business. “It’s the opening of a Pandora’s box and it’s a very, very sad thing that’s happened with this whole situation.”

Trump said Biden might not be the only one targeted. Former President Barack Obama could end up being prosecuted, he said, citing Obama administration drone strikes in the Middle East that killed a U.S. citizen who was identified as a leader of the terrorist group al-Qaida and that man's 16-year-old son, also a U.S. citizen. In court, Trump's attorney suggested that former President George W. Bush could be prosecuted for providing false information that launched the Iraq War.

The arguments, related to the federal charges Trump faces for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, raised new constitutional issues that may only be settled at the U.S. Supreme Court because Trump's cases mark the first criminal prosecutions of a former president. They also dramatically raised the stakes of Trump's campaign to portray the charges as politically motivated attacks from Biden that would justify his own retaliation should he return to the White House.

Legal experts were skeptical that allowing the charges to go forward would lead to endless prosecutions of ex-presidents. Still, Trump has increasingly framed his bid to return to office as getting...