The American Supreme Court with a conservative majority referred, Monday, July 1, 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, four months from now. the election.
With the voice of the six conservative judges against that of the three progressives, the Court considers that “the president does not enjoy any immunity for his unofficial acts” but that he “is entitled at least to a presumption of immunity for his official acts.”
This decision is “a great victory for our democracy and our Constitution,” Donald Trump immediately reacted, campaigning to return to the White House. The Republican “thinks he is above the law,” Joe Biden’s campaign team accused on Monday.
This decision, which further delays the prospect of a federal trial of the billionaire in connection with the assault on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021, “changes nothing in 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,” commented a campaign adviser to the Democratic president, candidate for a second term.
Procedure suspended
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 won by Joe Biden.
The entire procedure for this trial, initially scheduled to start on March 4 and postponed indefinitely, had already been suspended for four months.
During the debates, while the judges 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,” observed Neil Gorsuch, referring to the unprecedented nature of the question. “This affair 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 found guilty on May 30 by the New York courts of “aggravated false accounting to conceal a conspiracy to subvert the 2016 election.” He will be sentenced on July 11.
But this first criminal conviction, unprecedented for a former American president, in the least politically burdensome of the four procedures, also risks being the only one before the vote.
Because 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 re-elected, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order a halt to federal prosecutions against him.
The New York Times calls on Joe Biden to “quit the race” for the White House to “serve his country”
With AFP
