The US Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, referred the case back on Monday, 1is July, to the lower courts the question of the criminal immunity of Donald Trump as ex-president, further delaying the holding of his federal trial in Washington and the possibility that the latter would be held before the American presidential election, organized in november. He is accused of trying to interfere with the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden.
By six votes to three, those of the six conservative judges against the three progressives, the Court considers that “the president enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts” but that he “is entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for his official acts”recalling that this is the first criminal case in American history involving a former president for actions taken while he was in office.
A decision, synonymous with saving time, that Donald Trump welcomed on his Truth Social network as a “great victory for our democracy and our Constitution, I am proud to be an American!”. The Republican “thinks he is above the law”replied Joe Biden’s campaign team, believing that the decision “does not change the facts (…) : Donald Trump broke down after losing the 2020 election and encouraged a mob to overturn the results of a free and fair election »according to the words of an electoral campaign advisor.
Donald Trump is trying to buy time
By deciding on February 28 to take up this question, then by scheduling the debates almost three months later, the highest court of the United States had already considerably postponed the federal trial of the former Republican president for attempted illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election.
During the arguments, the justices were generally skeptical of the absolute immunity claimed by Donald Trump. However, several justices 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 (…) from the country “a abondé Brett Kavanaugh.
Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, Donald Trump is pulling out all the stops to be tried as late as possible, in any case after the presidential election. He was found guilty on May 30 by the New York courts of “aggravated false accounting 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 onerous of the four procedures on the political level, also risks being the only one before the vote.
Through numerous appeals, Donald Trump’s lawyers have managed to postpone until further notice the other trials, at the federal level for withholding classified documents after he left the White House and before the courts in the key state of Georgia for electoral interference in 2020.
If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order an end to federal proceedings against him.
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