WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — A federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump can face trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In their decision, the judges rejected the former president’s claims that he is immune from prosecution.

The decision marks the second time in as many months that judges have held that Trump can be prosecuted for actions undertaken while in the White House and in the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.

This decision also sets the stage for additional appeals from the Republican ex-president that could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

The trial was originally set for March, but it was postponed last week and the judge didn’t immediately set a new date. Trump is the Republican primary front-runner for the November election.

The appeals court took center stage in the immunity dispute after the Supreme Court said it was at least temporarily staying out of it, rejecting a request from special counsel Jack Smith to take up the matter quickly and issue a speedy ruling.

The legally untested question before the court was whether former presidents can be prosecuted after they leave office for actions taken in the White House related to their official duties.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, rejected Trump’s arguments in a Dec. 1 opinion that said the office of the president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”

Trump’s lawyers then appealed to the D.C. appeals court, but Smith asked the Supreme Court to weigh in first, in hopes of securing a fast and definitive ruling and preserving the March 4 trial date.

The high court declined the request, leaving the matter with the appeals court.

The appeal was argued before Judges Florence Pan and J. Michelle Childs, appointees of Biden, a Democrat, and Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was named to the bench by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican.

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