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Although the former president’s argument has not been fully validated by the majority of conservative judges, their decision will have the desired effect: to postpone any new federal trial beyond the presidential election.
No, dear Donald Trump, a President of the United States does not enjoy total and absolute immunity, freeing all his actions and words, even outside the official exercise of his function, from all accountability to the law, to prosecutors and courts. But the six judges constituting the conservative majority of the Supreme Court recognize the head of state as having a presumption of immunity in the context of his official acts. A position which, according to the three progressive magistrates expressing their disagreement in writing, “with fear for our democracy”, amounts to “to make a mockery of the founding principle of our Constitution and our system of government, according to which no one is above the law.”
Seized of this question in February, the Supreme Court therefore concretely ruled in part against the former president. But with enough nuance to refer this issue to the courts which will have to decide what is or is not official presidential action. Above all, they will have taken everything, all their time, reserving the disclosure of their decision for the final hearing before the summer break – even spilling over into the beginning of July, which had only happened once in a year. half century (in 2020, pandemic year). Failing to fully prove Trump and his lawyers right, this calendar slippage would have been more than enough to satisfy the ex-president, and do his business in his current campaign to reconquer the
