(Washington) The United States Supreme Court on Monday extended the deadline for criminal proceedings in Washington against Donald Trump, accused of plotting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, thus ending the possibility that the former president be tried before the November election.
Published at 8:35 a.m.
Updated at 10:42 a.m.
Associated Press et Agence France-Presse
In a landmark ruling (6-3), the justices declared for the first time that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for their official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts. But rather than do so themselves, the justices ordered lower courts to determine precisely how to apply that ruling to Mr. Trump’s case.
Donald Trump hailed the Supreme Court’s decision as a “great victory” on Monday.
“This is a great victory for our democracy and our Constitution, I am proud to be American! “, wrote the former president on his Truth Social network.
By deciding on February 28 to take up this question, then by scheduling the debates nearly three months later, the highest court in the United States had already considerably postponed the federal trial of the former Republican president for attempting to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election won by his Democratic successor Joe Biden.
The entire procedure for this trial, initially scheduled for March 4, and postponed sine die, had therefore been suspended for four months.
During the debates, while the justices were generally skeptical of the absolute immunity claimed by the Republican candidate, several, particularly among conservatives, insisted on the long-term repercussions of their decision.
“We are writing a rule for posterity,” Neil Gorsuch observed, referring to the unprecedented nature of the question.
“This case has enormous implications for the future of the presidency and the country,” added his colleague Brett Kavanaugh.
Appeal
Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, Donald Trump is doing everything possible to go to trial as late as possible, at least after the presidential election.
He was convicted on May 30 by a New York court of “aggravated accounting falsification to conceal a conspiracy to pervert the 2016 election.” His sentence will be pronounced on July 11.
But this first criminal conviction, unprecedented for a former American president, in the least politically heavy of the four procedures, also risks being the only one before the vote.
Because through appeals, Donald Trump’s lawyers managed to postpone other trials until further notice, at the federal level for withholding classified documents after his departure from the White House and before the courts of the key state of Georgia for election interference in 2020.
If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order an end to federal proceedings against him.
